The Derek Chauvin Pardon Problem, Bombshell Diddy Trial Updates, Trump’s 59 South African Refugees
PDS Published 05/14/2025
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Will Trump pardon Derek Chauvin?
That is a question that many are asking amid a renewed push from many top conservative voices as we near the five-year anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd.
And now, officials in Minnesota are actively preparing for that possibility.
Right, in addition to being convicted on state murder and manslaughter charges — for which he is serving over 22 years — Chauvin also pleaded guilty to federal charges back in 2021.
And specifically, the former cop admitted that he had abused his power as a police officer and willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure by kneeling on his neck even though he wasn’t resisting.
With Chauvin also pleading guilty to violating the same rights of a 14-year-old boy in a separate incident back in 2017.
So, as a result, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, where he is currently serving time.
But because Trump has the power to pardon or commute federal sentences, prominent conservatives have launched a concerted effort to encourage him to take that step.
And one of the main leaders of that effort is Ben Shapiro, who started a whole campaign to convince Trump to grant Chauvin a pardon back in March.
With Shapiro circulating a petition, filming a five-part docu-series called “The Case for Derek Chauvin” claiming that he is innocent, and using his podcast to publicly call on Trump to grant a federal pardon:
“President Trump should in fact pardon Derek Chauvin. He should. He should pardon him of federal charges.” 00:13 - 00:16
“The evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not in fact commit murder of George Floyd.” 00:54 - 00:59
“I think it is worthwhile to remember that there is a man who is rotting in prison because the media decided in the middle of 2020 that they were going to turn a tragic law enforcement stop that ended with the death of a man who had significant problems with drugs and pre-existing health problems into the racial debt of the entire 2020 election.” 2:10 - 2:31
Now, notably here, experts argue the evidence does not in fact back up the claim Shapiro is getting at — saying it shows the exact opposite.
Right, a county medical examiner explicitly ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide and listed the cause as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
Saying that Floyd died due to loss or deprivation of oxygen caused by the neck restraint Chauvin placed on him.
And while the examiner did say that heart disease and fentanyl use were contributing factors, he specifically testified during Chauvin's trial that, quote:
“Mr. Floyd's use of fentanyl did not cause the subdual or neck restraint. His heart disease did not cause the subdual or the neck restraint.”
Right, so with this, you had a lot of people condemning Shapiro’s efforts here.
With many others also pointing out that this is a complete 180 from remarks he made back in 2020:
“I think that, once more, it’s important to recognize that everyone should be on the same side of this. Everyone should be on the same side of this. And really — we are not — what we have seen here is a police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man for four straight minutes while he is being told by people — including the guy who is underneath his knee — that he cannot breathe. Okay, it’s really, really, ugly, and it’s really, really bad.” 00:11 - 00:33
“At the very least this officer should go to jail for assault, you would assume, because this is not within the purview of employment. You don’t get just to — it’s police brutality, obviously.” 1:45 - 1:50
“I mean, it’s just egregious. It’s egregious, egregious, egregious. And he should be prosecuted — this officer — to the fullest extent of the law in to which the evidence shows.” 2:43 - 2:50
But despite all the criticism, you also had many people on the right amplifying Shapiro’s calls and claims.
This including major voices like Elon Musk, with him sharing the clip of Shapiro calling on Trump to pardon Chauvin and writing:
“Something to think about” []
Now, at the time, Trump said that he wasn’t actively considering a pardon for Chauvin when asked by reporters, claiming that he hadn’t “even heard about it.”
But now that we are creeping up on the anniversary of Floyd’s death, political and law enforcement leaders in Minnesota have still started preparing for that possibility.
With a local outlet reporting that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota National Guard, and local leaders around Minneapolis have “all been briefed on preparations for possible civil unrest.”
And you even had Walz confirming that this week, telling reporters that he hasn’t gotten any indication from the White House that a pardon is coming, but adding:
“I think it behooves us to be prepared for it. With this presidency, it seems like that might be something they would do.”
With the governor also explaining that, if a pardon did come, it would just be for the federal charges — Trump can’t do anything about the state charges — so Chauvin would just be transferred to state prison, saying:
“If Donald Trump exercises his constitutional right to do so, whether I agree — and I strongly disagree with him — if he issues that pardon we will simply transfer Derek Chauvin to serve out his 22-and-a-half years in prison in Minnesota.”
You also had Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison echoing that, saying a pardon would be entirely symbolic and functionally wouldn’t change anything because he would still have to serve his state charges, arguing:
“A pardon of Chauvin’s federal conviction would return him to Minnesota to serve the rest of his sentence in state prison. The only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law.”
But, despite that, we still saw many people on the right sharing reports about state and local officials preparing for a potential pardon and urging Trump to take the leap.
This including elected officials like Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who posted:
“I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison.”
And then falsely claiming that Floyd “died of a drug overdose.”[]
With Shapiro also chiming in to reiterate his stance, writing on X:
“President Trump should, as we have been calling for, pardon Chauvin. One of the biggest reasons Chauvin was convicted was jury and political intimidation by rioters. Now the same people who helped railroad him are concerned that people might riot if justice is done.”[]
But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see if Trump heeds those calls, and in the meantime, I’d love to know what you think about all this.
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The biggest witness of the Diddy trial is taking the stands, detailing patterns of violence, control, and abuse at the hands of Diddy.
And this witness is his ex, Cassie Ventura, who actually sued him back in 2023 in a case that was quickly settled, but then prompted dozens of other suits to follow.[]
She is also the woman who Diddy was seen beating in hotel surveillance footage from 2016 previously shared by CNN.
And that footage played in court, with Cassie sharing her side of that incident yesterday.
Saying she had been participating in a freak off that day, and knew she had to get out after Diddy allegedly became violent and hit her, giving her a black eye.[]
But as you can see in the hotel footage, after she left the hotel room, Diddy follows her to the elevator, with Cassie saying:
“The next thing I knew, I was just thrown to the ground. It was really fast.”
And then, when asked how many other times Diddy threw her to the ground like that, she claimed:[]
“Too many to count.”
And this comes as the jury had already heard from a man who was working as a security officer at the time of this incident,
With him claiming he saw Cassie with a “purple” eye, and that she was trying to leave but Diddy would not initially let her. []
But she also refused to call the police or answer questions.
That guard also said Diddy held up a wad of cash for him that he believed was a bribe, but turned that money down.
And that hotel video was not the only time during Cassie’s testimony where she alleged Diddy was violent.
Noting she met him when she was 19 and he was 37, he then signed her to his record label and began dating her within a few years.[]
And by the time she was 22, she said he had asked her to start doing freak offs, which made her “confused and nervous” but she also loved him.
With her saying of their relationship:
“There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse. Dragging, different things of that nature.”[]
She also accused him of controlling her appearance and the way she dressed or did her nails, saying:[]
"My appearance was very important to him, it was pretty immediate. Some days he would want me to be really sexy and other days like a tomboy. He was just very involved in it."
"I had to look a certain way during freak offs. Definitely my self-worth took a hit during the entirety of the relationship."
She also alleged he was controlling about the way she acted, as well, saying:[]
"Make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face."
And during opening statements, Diddy’s lawyers admitted that he could be violent, and even said his behavior may have warranted domestic violence charges, but not the trafficking and racketeering charges he is on trial for.
With his lawyer even saying jurors might leave this trial thinking he is a jerk, but:
“he’s not charged with being mean. He’s not charged with being a jerk.”
His lawyers also repeatedly insisted that all sexual encounters were consensual.[]
But some of the most disturbing details from Cassie’s testimony came from her accounts of freak-offs.
She claims Diddy would order her to recruit male sex workers, and then pay them to have sex with her, and that these so-called freak-offs would last for around 36 or 48 hours, with the longest going for four days.[]
And they would often have no breaks for sleep, despite Cassie saying she needed rest, with her claiming they would use drugs to stay up the whole time. []
With Diddy allegedly choreographing and controlling every aspect of these, like who had sex with who, what lubricants, candles, and linens were used.[]
And she alleged he directed her to be lathered in heated up baby oil so she was “glistening” in it, and reapplying it frequently. []
And to get through this, Cassie claimed she took drugs to numb herself while she was having sex with people she did not want to have sex with for days at a time.[]
And she also claimed it got to a point where she was doing freak-offs, weekly, with this lasting for around a decade of her life, adding:
“‘Freak offs’ became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again.”
And as for why she kept doing them, she says she felt unable to refuse him, adding:
“I just didn’t want to make him upset. I just didn’t want to make him angry and regret telling me about this experience that was so personal.”
Alleging that when he got angry:[]
"His eyes were black. The version that I fell in love with was no longer there."
She also feared he whould blackmail her, as there was footage of the freak-offs, and she knew he had the ability to spread those images far and wide.[]
And it really troubled her that the freak offs were recorded because she found them “humiliating” and “disgusting” and she never wanted anyone to see her like that, adding:[]
“The idea of objectifying me was tossed around like it was nothing, putting me in these compromising positions with strangers.”
One thing people also noted as Cassie took to the stands is that she is visibly pregnant and in her third trimester, and the defense even asked to have Cassie already sitting in the witness box when the jury entered so her pregnancy would be less visible to them.[]
But the judge did not grant that request.
Her testimony is also continuing today as I am recording, including more details about the freak-offs.
With her testifying that she would often get UTIs when they were happening frequently, but she was forced to participate even though the infections caused her horrible pain.[]
She also said the drug use and sexual activities caused her to get sores on her tongue.
And she alleged that she made it clear she did not want to do freak-offs, pointing to a text where she said “nothing good” came out of them and compared Diddy to Tina Turner’s abusive husband, Ike.
The subject of blackmail also came up again, with Cassie claiming that in one instance while they were on a plane together, Diddy pulled up videos of freak-offs and threatened to release them, which made her feel trapped, and so she ended up doing another freak-off, adding:
“At that point, whatever was going to make him not be angry at me and threatening me, I was willing to do. I just didn’t want to feel scared anymore.”
But this trial is still ongoing, so we will have to see what else comes from it.
But in the meantime, I would love to know your thoughts on what we have seen so far.
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We gotta talk about white South Africans now being accepted into the United States as refugees.
Right, because while Trump has halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war in places like Sudan and the Congo…
On Monday, he welcomed 59 members of a white ethnic minority group from the country arguably best known for its historic oppression of Black people.
Right, this group, they’re known as Afrikaners (AF-ruh-KAH-ners).
And they’re the descendants of Dutch and other European immigrants who went to South Africa centuries ago.
Though, notably, they own farmland that covers about half of the country. []
Of course, with much of that land originally acquired by forcing out Black farmers and herders.
And in 1913, in fact, a law was actually passed explicitly allocating 93% of the country’s land to white people. []
And this week’s news goes back to the current South African government’s efforts to address this inequality through land reform.
Right, in January, the president signed a controversial law that – in very rare circumstances – gives the government the ability to take private property without paying compensation.
With this then prompting Trump to cut off all aid to South Africa and sign an executive order ordering his own administration to, quote:
“...prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.” []
Right, with some officials casting the move as politically motivated, noting that the Trump administration has criticized the country for having a close relationship with Iran and for its stance against Israel. []
With others also pointing out that several of the most influential figures around Trump “are fiftysomething white men with formative experiences in apartheid South Africa” – []
Including not only Elon Musk, but also people like Peter Thiel, another Silicon Valley billionaire with deep ties to the administration.
And in fact, Musk has been one of the most prominent voices spreading claims about persecution and even genocide against white people, and white farmers in particular, in South Africa.
And on Monday, to justify the refugee program, we saw Trump repeating those claims, saying:
“It's a genocide that's taking place... Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white. Whether they are white or Black makes no difference to me. White farmers are being brutally killed and the land is being confiscated in South Africa.” (0:21-0:42)
Of course, as you can imagine, there's little to no evidence to back up those claims.
Right, as far as confiscating land?
Like I said, there is a law that hypothetically allows for that to happen, and whether it’s a good idea is up for debate.
But what you need to know is that one, so far at least, it hasn’t actually been used to seize any land.
Two, if the government does try to invoke the law, strict requirements have to be met and the whole process is subject to review by a judge.
And three, another key purpose of the law is to deal with dilapidated and abandoned structures throughout the country that pose a real safety risk.
Right, something we saw evidence of in 2023 when a huge fire killed at least 77 people, including children, squatting in an abandoned building.
And as far as Musk’s and Trump’s other claims?
Well, first off, the idea of a white genocide taking place?
There's just no basis for that whatsoever.
And then, even the idea that white farmers are being specifically targeted and killed on a widespread or regular basis?
Well, for sure, and there have been murders that have made for shocking headlines.
But the reality is that it’s an extremely dangerous country in general and Black South Africans are ultimately far more likely to be victims of violence.
Tessa Dooms, for example, is an exec at a think tank in Johannesburg, and you have her saying Trump’s claims are “based on lies, on false narratives and propaganda that is purely fictional." []
And with that, I mean, let’s look at the numbers.
Last year, there were 72 murders a day in the country.
But only 44 murders were recorded on farms and smaller plots of agricultural land – and only eight of those actually involved the death of a farmer. []
And while we don’t know the race of all the victims, we do know that a majority of the country's farmers are white, while the other people living on farms, as laborers, for example? They’re mostly black. []
And I mean, just looking at the last quarter of 2024?
There were 12 farm murders recorded by police, with only one of those killed being a white farmer. []
And that’s out of nearly 7,000 total killings in the country during that time.
And with that, while there are obviously concerns about violence, we haven’t seen people trying to say they were refugees.
Right, last year, there were reportedly no South Africans of any race, ethnicity or linguistic group who met the UN’s criteria to be resettled as refugees. []
And now, State Department officials are reportedly being tight-lipped about EXACTLY what boxes have been ticked for these new arrivals –
With a departmental memo obtained by The Washington Post reportedly claiming most of them “have witnessed or experienced extreme violence with a racial nexus” including home invasions, murders or carjackings that took place up to 25 years ago. []
And with that, you had one migration researcher claiming the South Africans arriving in the US are aware that there's no persecution of white people in the country, but are taking advantage of the opportunity to go to America. []
With him also saying to another outlet:
"It has very little to do with South Africa's empirical realities and everything to do with Trump positioning himself as a savior of white privilege and Christianity globally.” []
And ultimately, with all that, you have aid groups, activists, and others saying Trump’s refugee initiative makes a mockery of a system designed to help people who are truly in need –
Especially as we’ve seen these South Africans being helped not just in addition to others in need but instead of.
Right, the Trump administration has suspended most refugee admissions and cut off funding to resettlement agencies in the country.
It has also moved to rescind temporary protected status designations for countries including Haiti, Venezuela and Cameroon – opening the door for their deportation back to those countries.
And in fact, on the same day these South Africans arrived in the country?
The Department of Homeland Security announced it would terminate temporary protected status for over 9,000 Afghans already in the U.S. --
With DHS Secretary Kristi Noem saying “Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country."
But with advocates calling the idea that Afghan refugees can safely return to their Taliban-ruled homeland “absurd and divorced from reality.”
And on top of all this, this is as the South African refugees have been given preferential treatment in a number of other ways.
Right, for one, the refugee process often takes years.
But Trump created an expedited pathway that’s gotten them into the country in just a matter of months – also saying he’d put them on an easy path to citizenship.
Plus, for decades, the State Department has required refugees to pay their own way to travel to the US.
And when a refugee can’t afford the cost of travel, the State Department provides the refugee with an interest-free, repayable loan.
With all this being facilitated through a UN Agency called the International Organization for Migration.[]
But this time, the IOM hasn’t been involved – and state department officials have instead reportedly chartered planes directly–
A move that typically only occurs only during emergencies involving a large number of people are all being resettled at once, like when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. []
And finally, the administration is also reportedly putting a lot of effort into helping the new arrivals with resettlement – including finding housing and getting a hold of other essential goods and services. []
Although, notably, since Trump has frozen a lot of the funding going to organizations that help with resettlement, officials are reportedly pulling the money from other sources:
One meant to cover gaps in funding for particularly vulnerable refugees.
And another to help state governments administer job training and other programs for refugees. []
And notably, one of the non-governmental organizations the federal government was still funding? The Episcopal Church?
It has refused its directive from the administration to help resettle the South African refugees, citing the church’s longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.”
With the Church also announcing that by the end of the federal fiscal year, it will completely conclude its refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government. []
And also saying the move marks the end of a ministry-government partnership that has for over four decades served nearly 110,000 refugees from all around the world. []
And so ultimately, however you feel about refugees from South Africa, one thing for sure is that a lot fewer people in need are getting help.
But with that, I gotta pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on all this?
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