Liberal Journalists Turn On Biden After Stunning New Scandal Is Uncovered

A wave of commutations by President Joe Biden is drawing scrutiny by reliably liberal reporters who pointed out that the Democrat is pardoning an individual who raked in millions of dollars by leveraging the judicial system to abuse children.

Yashar Ali of the Huffington Post was among a number of journalists to highlight Biden’s pardoning of Michael T. Conahan, a former Pennsylvania judge who in 2011 was sentenced to 17 years in prison for orchestrating a kickback scheme that involved bribes in exchange for ordering young adults convicted of serious crimes to serve their sentences at for-profit prisons. The “Kids for Cash” schemer was just one of 1,500 individuals granted commutations by President Biden this week. “Over 2,500 children were impacted by these corrupt judges and some of them ended up taking their own lives,” Ali wrote on X. “These sentences had a devastating impact on their lives.”

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WOW.

One of the people who got their sentenced commuted by Biden today was one of the Kids-for-Cash judges.

He accepted big kickbacks in exchange for sentencing kids to a for-profit prison.

Over 2,500 children were impacted by these corrupt judges and some of them ended up… pic.twitter.com/B1mv1hvMkq

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 13, 2024

The Justice Department cited Conahan’s case as the worst judicial scandal in Pennsylvania’s history. In a statement to the New York Times, Biden said many individuals like Conahan would have received significantly lighter sentences under today’s guidelines. “These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the Covid pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance,” Mr. Biden said.

Together with former Judge Mark Ciavarella, Conahan assisted in closing the Luzerne County-run juvenile detention center and accepting millions of dollars from the builder and co-owner of two new pro-profit detention centers, according to WNEP. Hillary Transue, the whistleblower who blew the lid off the scheme, said many victims are still reeling more than a decade later. “The kids that were affected by Ciavarella, the people who were affected by him, they aren’t mad because he took money. That’s salt in the wound. What we’re mad about is that he hurt us,” said Transue.

The Daily Beast also provided critical coverage of Conahan’s commutation by Biden. Sandy Fonzo, the mother of a young man who killed himself after being sentenced by Conahan, called the shelving of his 17-year sentence “deeply painful.”

“I am shocked and I am hurt,” she told the outlet. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power. This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”

So, too, did The New Republic, a left-wing publication that compiled some of the progressives’ most poignant criticisms of Biden’s pardon, especially in light of his hypocritical decision to pardon his son Hunter. “Wow. I think Biden’s commuting the sentence of this disgraced Pa judge is a big mistake. I covered this in my Pa media days. He was one of 2 judges receiving $$ to sentence kids to lengthy sentences in a for-profit juvenile prison,” wrote The Washington Post’s Heather Long in a post on X. “He ruined a lot of kids’ lives.”

The Nation’s Joshua A. Cohen asked on social media, “What is his problem?” Jose Pagliery of NOTUS added on X, “I remember this case. It was a shocking scandal, caused immeasurable harm, and seriously tainted an entire community’s faith in the justice system. The conviction sought to rebuild that trust. How will these families feel now?”

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