Greetings, Lemonation. My name is Monique Presley, and I am back with you for another edition of

The Week with Monique. If I had to describe for you the issue of the week this week, I would have to

take it back to our days as kids, or maybe we had gone to a circus or a carnival or two.

And when we walk in, there's a man with a big hat, some funny outfit, saying, step right up, step right up.

Except for this week, he'd be saying, come get your pardon.

Pardons for sale.

You can have a pardon for the low price of $1 million.

Cut your check and get your friend or your loved one out of jail free.

That's exactly what's been happening this week as we start rattling

off the names of people that the current occupant of the White House has decided to pardon.

And with a huge departure from prior years, even from his own prior administration,

none of the rules that used to apply,

none of the guidelines, none of the guardrails

for how we determined pardons are applicable anymore.

It seems that they are quite literally available

to the highest bidder. Of course, you've got to be

all MAGA all the time and you've got to put your money where your mouth is. So this week,

we saw people who were fraudsters, we saw people who were tax evaders, we saw people with

serious offenses, and they all really only

had a couple of things in common. They had pledged fealty and loyalty to Trump and the MAGA brand.

And they were willing to pay the price. Now, gone are the days when people like the pardon attorney under President

Biden actually had standards and people submitted their applications for pardons and, frankly,

...