Josh Shapiro: Why Did Biden Let Corrupt Judge Off the Hook?

Commute in haste, repent at leisure. It turns out that Hunter Biden isn’t the only corruptocrat to get let off the hook by the Big Guy, and this time it’s not just Republicans crying foul. 

Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon this week to 1500 or or so convicts who got released to home detention during the pandemic. The White House wanted to set a record, apparently, but they also wanted to prevent the incoming administration from returning them back to traditional penitentiary custody. Unfortunately for Biden, he didn’t pay much attention to the actual records of those whose sentences he commuted.

One of those who now walks free is Michael Conahan, a Pennsylvania judge in the “Kids for Cash” scheme in which Conahan and other judges got kickbacks from private facilities for sentencing juveniles to their custody. This scheme snared over 2,000 children, many of whom were denied basic due process and civil rights, until a federal investigation exposed the scheme. 

A Fox affiliate in Pennsylvania explains the case, and also points out that Conahan’s co-conspirators didn’t get as lucky:

Here’s how the New York Times reported on the sentencing of both judges in 2011:

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was ordered Thursday to spend 28 years in prison for a bribery scandal that prompted the state’s high court to overturn thousands of juvenile convictions. Mr. Ciavarella was convicted of taking a $1 million bribe from the builder of a pair of juvenile detention centers in a case that became known as “kids for cash.” In the wake of the scandal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned about 4,000 convictions issued by the judge, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles. Al Flora, his lawyer, called the sentence harsher than expected.

   Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael Conahan, of taking more than $2 million in bribes from Robert Mericle, the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers, and of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Robert Powell, the facilities’ co-owner. Mr. Ciavarella took the cash while filling the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders. Mr. Conahan pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

Utterly despicable. The two judges and Mericle essentially sold thousands of children into slavery. They should have received life sentences; the 17 years Conahan got doesn’t come close to measuring up to the years they cost these children. And now Conahan is off the hook entirely after barely serving a decade in prison, thanks to Joe Biden’s desire to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. 

Governor Josh Shapiro isn’t sitting quietly about this, either. Shapiro could be a contender for the next Democrat presidential nomination, but he let the current occupant of the Oval Office know about his displeasure in no uncertain terms today. Pick this up at the 24:20 mark in this press conference from Joe Biden’s home town of Scranton, via our friend Salena Zito:

At about 24 minutes in @GovernorShapiro gives his thoughts about Biden’s pardoning of Kids for Cash judge and he is unequivocal in his displeasure here is the full quote:

“I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in… https://t.co/2Fzl0rSdZO

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) December 13, 2024

“I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  This was not only a black eye on the community, the kids for cash scandal, but it also affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways. Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart. There was all kind of mental health issues and anguish that came as a result of these corrupt judges deciding they wanted to make a buck off a kid’s back. Frankly, I thought the sentence that the judge got was too light, and the fact that he’s been allowed out over the last years because of COVID, was on house arrest and now has been granted clemency, I think, is absolutely wrong. He should have been in prison for at least the 17 years that he was sentenced to by a jury of his peers. He deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”

Shapiro tries hard to be seen as fair to his fellow Democrat, but his voice betrays the anger he feels at this absurd result. And make no mistake: by prefacing this with his process of considering clemency requests, Shapiro is heaping condemnation on Biden, who clearly didn’t care who got commutations as long as he got credit for being so magnanimous. There may have been people who truly deserved these commutations in the mass grant, but Conahan isn’t one of them — and there will no doubt be others where mercy seems out of joint to their offenses.