Bladensburg, Md., 4/7/2016 –  U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Douglas issued the following statement:

“Since President Barack Obama’s 2015 capitulation to the Castro regime, I have been wondering why the President has been so quiet about killer JoAnne Chesimard and other fugitives from U.S. justice in Cuba.  Could it be that he intends to pardon them before he leaves office?  In 1973, Chesimard murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and wounded Trooper James Harper.  Chesimard later escaped to Cuba, where she and more than fifty other fugitives from the U.S. remain.

The President has said much about Cuba during the last year, but very little about the fugitives.  I think it’s a safe bet Justice and White House lawyers, even now, are quietly preparing “pardon packages” for the President’s signature after November elections.  Line prosecutors and law enforcement are unlikely to have a real voice in these decisions.  And the victims?  Don’t even ask. 

The possibility of clemency for killers and skyjackers in Cuba begs many questions.  For instance, insofar as Chesimard is concerned, does President Obama even have the power to pardon an offense charged under New Jersey criminal statutes?  I doubt it.  Has the President consulted Congress about pardons for fugitives in Cuba?  A U.S. Senator from Maryland is top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Two Maryland U.S. House Democrats are competing  with me to replace U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski.  Have any received an Administration heads up about pardons?  Have any of them even asked?

Pardoning  American fugitives on the lam in Cuba would be a final indignity visited upon law enforcement by a White House which, over and over, proved itself disloyal to police.  A President who embraces totalitarian regimes is certainly capable of pardoning the criminals they protect.  What we ought to find out is whether Congress and federal candidates can stomach it too.

For starters, we ought to demand some answers.  And we should be clear:  no presidential pardons for cop-killers or skyjackers.  Period.”

Iraq veteran Richard J. Douglas is a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.  During the 1990s, he managed the U.S. extradition docket with Mexico at the U.S. Department of Justice.