WASHINGTON — President Trump pardoned 10 Wisconsin Republicans, who involved criminally to declare him the winner pf the 2020 presidential election with forged documents. They were among 77 operatives in several states who participated in the Trump-engineered scheme to deny Joe Biden the U.S. presidency even he had won. The Wisconsin pardons went to
> Bill Feehan. former La Crosse County Republican chair. Feehan currently is a vice chairman of the state Republican.
> Other pardoned Wisconsin conspirators: Carol Brunner, Mary Buestrin, Darryl Carlson, Edward Scott Grabins, Andrew Hitt, Kathy Kiernan, Robert F. Spindell Jr., Kelly Ruh and Pam Travis.
Trump’s goal with the pardons was unclear. As part of state-level civil lawsuits against them, all 10 Wisconsinites:
> Admitted to plotting to overturn Biden’s victory.
> Acknowledged that Biden won Wisconsin,
> Withdrew their filings.
> Agreed never again to serve as presidential electors in any election in which Trump is a candidate.
Trump’s goal with the pardons seemed muddled. None of the Wisconsin fake electors had been prosecuted in federal courts nor served any prison time. As such they weren’t eligible for presidential pardons. Some chroniclers of the Trump presidency took the pardons as a further signal of Trump’s cognitive decline at age 79. They note that Trump has engaged in increasingly incoherent, counter-productive and bizarre practices. These include blindness to constitutional limits on his presidential powers. Tey point also to a growing preoccupation to wipe history clean of tawdry episodes in his record. They see a pattern that includes the 2021 mob attack he directed on the Capitol, which he calls a “lovefest”; his long association with millionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein; and failed and unscrupulous business practices.