I've never seen such abuse of pardon power in my life. Bribes? Favors?

Investigate the pardons! What the heck is Trump doing pardoning convicted major drug traffickers? President Trump has embraced clemency as an expression of raw political power, seizing on a unique authority designed to go unchecked by Congress, the Constitution or the courts, Axios' Zachary Basu writes: • Why it matters: No presidential power is more absolute than the pardon. And no president has wielded it more openly as a tool of personal and ideological loyalty than Donald Trump. Zoom in: Trump's extraordinary move to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández — convicted last year of flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine — is among the clearest examples yet. • Prosecutors said Hernández, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, conspired with cartels to pave a "cocaine superhighway" into the U.S. — posing as an anti-drug conservative while running his country like a narco state. • White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a "clear Biden over-prosecution." Between the lines: The Hernández pardon fits squarely within Trump's view of justice — serious criminal conduct matters far less than whether the defendant pledges loyalty, flatters the president or aligns with his ideological project. • While the right-wing Hernández walks free from his 45-year prison sentence, left-wing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro — indicted on charges of narcoterrorism — faces the threat of a U.S. military invasion. Zoom out: The dynamic extends to Trump's domestic orbit, where MAGA-friendly financiers, operatives and celebrity allies have had their convictions wiped away with the stroke of Trump's pen. • Changpeng Zhao ("CZ"): The billionaire founder of crypto giant Binance was pardoned despite pleading guilty in 2023 to money laundering violations. Trump — whose family's crypto venture has ties to Binance — later claimed he did not know CZ, saying on "60 Minutes": "I heard it was a Biden witch hunt." • George Santos: The disgraced former GOP congressman — convicted of defrauding donors and lying to the House — had his seven-year sentence commuted by Trump after spending less than three months in prison. • Paul Walczak: Trump pardoned the former nursing home executive, who pleaded guilty to tax crimes, less than three weeks after his mother attended a $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago. A White House official claimed Walczak was "targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics." • Fake electors: Trump granted sweeping pardons to Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and more than 70 other allies tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the "alternate electors" scheme.