Trump's insane pardons are killing any faint flicker of justice in America
The Oglala Sioux, and the historic Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where many tribal members still live, have often witnessed the American government on its worst behavior. Pine Ridge is home to Wounded Knee, where in 1890 U.S. Army troops fueled by settlers’ racist fears of a Sioux resurgence massacred roughly 300 of the Lakota, and where in 1973 the modern-day American Indian Movement faced its own blood-soaked climax.
It probably won’t shock you to learn that President Donald Trump has not been a friend to the Oglala Sioux or the other Indigenous Americans living in the Dakotas. One of the first acts of his first term in 2017 was to ram through approval for the Dakota Access pipeline despite months of contentious protests by Native American residents that the government had no right to risk polluting its hallowed lands.
Now, Trump’s latest act is adding insult to centuries of injury for the Oglala Sioux.
The story of this newest outrage starts in 2015, when a group of slick investors arrived at Pine Ridge to pitch leaders of the Oglala Nation on an economic development plan for what stubbornly remains one of the poorest counties in the United States. The backers of a planned bond sale to benefit the reservation included Devon Archer, who at the same time was a partner on other deals with Hunter Biden, son of the then-vice president.
The beleaguered Oglala Sioux never reaped a dime from what federal prosecutors soon charged was a swindle from the start. A 2016 indictment alleged that the group defrauded its investors, as some partners used the proceeds for fancy cars and jewelry while Archer was accused of using some of the cash for propping up his other ventures. His 2018 conviction on securities fraud charges led to a one-year prison sentence and an order to pay $43 million in restitution, triggering a seven-year legal battle to avoid the penalties — and some major changes for Archer.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-pardons-archer-watson-milton-20250330.html
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