After Donald Trump pardoned a violent January 6th rioter, that person went home and sexually abused two 12-year-old kids. Now he’s going to prison for the rest of his life — and every Republican who supported those pardons is responsible for this.
Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, was found guilty last month of five serious crimes — molestation, showing inappropriate behavior, and sharing harmful material to a minor.
On Thursday, a judge gave him the maximum sentence: a life sentence in prison.
But this story is even more upsetting.
Johnson didn’t just hurt these children. He promised them money from the government to keep quiet. He told two scared 12-year-olds that the President of the United States would give him money as part of the process. He used that lie as a tool to control his victims.
“One child said, ‘He told us not to tell anyone.’
The other said, ‘We were scared. We didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong because we were 12 years old.'”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was clear: Trump’s pardons “definitely made Americans less safe.
“
He’s right.
Trump didn’t just pardon a rioter. He gave a predator a pass, a feeling of being untouchable, and in Johnson’s mind, a promise of future money. Johnson believed he was above the law.
“They think they’re untouchable,” Raskin said.
That’s the MAGA mindset in four words.
Trump told these pardoned insurrectionists they were patriots, heroes, hostages. He told them the system was broken and that he — their protector — would fix it. Johnson took that message and used it to harm two innocent children.
Justice was done on Thursday.
But the man who let Johnson go, who made him feel powerful, and who gave him the confidence to believe he would never face consequences?
He’s still in the White House.
Americans need to know what Trump’s pardons really did.
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