Outgoing US President Donald Trump pardoned Aviem Sella on Wednesday morning, the Israeli agent who recruited and initially handled former spy Jonathan Pollard, as part of a wave of last-minute presidential pardons before leaving the White House.
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Sella, 75, is an Israeli citizen who was indicted in 1986 on espionage charges related to the Pollard affair. Sella never stood trial in the United States. His request for clemency was supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Dr. Miriam Adelson.
"The State of Israel has issued a full and unequivocal apology, and has requested the pardon in order to close this unfortunate chapter in U.S.-Israel relations," the White House said.
Also on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has recently discussed forming a new political party. The president said he would want to call the new party the "Patriot Party."
As part of his flurry of clemency action, Trump also pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon along with 140 others.
Besides Bannon, other Trump family allies to get pardons were Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a scheme to lobby the White House to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian wealth fund, and Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce.
Bannon has been charged with duping thousands of investors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump's chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico. Instead, he allegedly diverted over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself.
Bannon did not respond to questions Tuesday.
In August, he was pulled from a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut and brought before a judge in Manhattan, where he pleaded not guilty. When he emerged from the courthouse, Bannon tore off his mask, smiled and waved to news cameras. As he went to a waiting vehicle, he shouted, "This entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall."
Trump has already pardoned a slew of longtime associates and supporters, including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law; his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone; and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
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