A man whose life sentence for his role in a robbery and murder was commuted by President Donald J. Trump was convicted this spring of a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his wife.
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The commutation of Jaime A. Davidson’s sentence came amid a flurry of almost 120 last-minute grants of clemency by President Donald J. Trump as he was leaving the White House.
By Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman
Sept. 3, 2024Updated 4:35 p.m. ET
A man whose life sentence in federal prison was commuted in 2021 by President Donald J. Trump was convicted this spring of a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his wife, the latest example of a Trump clemency beneficiary getting in legal trouble again.
The man, Jaime A. Davidson, was sentenced in Florida to three months behind bars in the domestic violence case. Given the conviction, he could face additional time in federal prison if he is found to have violated the terms of his supervised release after Mr. Trump’s decision, in the final hours of his presidency, to commute Mr. Davidson’s earlier life sentence.
Mr. Davidson was convicted of murder in 1993 on charges that he played a role in planning a robbery that led to the death of an undercover police officer in upstate New York. Mr. Davidson was not at the scene of the robbery, and he has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and asserted that he was framed.
The commutation was pushed by a lawyer for Mr. Davidson, and was not recommended by the Justice Department process for clemency applications. The lawyer, Bettina Schein, is married to Alan Futerfas, who has represented some of Mr. Trump’s children. Mr. Futerfas was not involved in Mr. Davidson’s clemency request.
It came amid a flurry of almost 120 last-minute grants of clemency by Mr. Trump as he was leaving the White House at the end of his term, raising questions about how thoroughly the recipients had been vetted and how they had used connections to get their requests in front of Mr. Trump.
Some White House officials objected to the clemency grant at the time. And it deeply upset former colleagues of the murdered undercover officer, Wallie Howard Jr., who questioned why Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly professed to support law enforcement, would use his sweeping powers to help someone tied to the murder of a policeman.
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Source: nytimes.com
