Trump commutes sentence of major political donor in latest round of clemency
Imaad Zuberi, 54, was a major Democrat supporter before he backed Trump following his 2016 election victory, The New York Times reported. Before pivoting to Trump on election night, he served as a bundler for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, including stints on both of their campaign finance committees.
Zuberi donated more than $1.1 million to committees associated with Trump and the Republican Party months after the 2016 election, the Times reported.
The donations secured him invitations to a pair of black-tie dinners celebrating Trump's inauguration.
In 2020, he pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the source of a $900,000 donation he made through his company to Trump's inaugural committee in late December 2016, the report states.
Zuberi also pleaded guilty to falsifying records filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal his lobbying work on behalf of Sri Lanka.
Zuberi allegedly directed millions of dollars from the Sri Lankan contract to himself and his wife for personal purposes, shortchanging lobbyists, public relations and law firms, and certain subcontractors who were part of the lobbying effort.
His commutation was one of several on Wednesday, as well as a few pardons.
Larry Hoover, who is serving time in a federal supermax prison, also had his sentence commuted. Hoover, the co-founder of the Chicago gang Gangster Disciples, was originally imprisoned for a 1973 murder and later convicted in 1998 for operating a criminal enterprise.
Trump also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted in two federal criminal cases, including one that contributed to his resignation.
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I read a stat today, 70% of the options market volume is on the call side, and 27% of year-to-date volume in trading across the board is coming in stocks under $5. That's even higher than during the pandemic. Because I I I asked that question, Tom, because I can understand some viewers would be watching this and they would be thinking to themselves, well, all of a sudden we're talking about Josh and Tom were talking meme stocks, we're talking about spacks again. Just whether you see this sort of speculative activity and is it a side to you of froth in the market. Yeah. Yeah, typically we see this type of activity towards the latter end of a move. So, again, not calling a market top, but I mean, think about it. We're up 30% in the indices over three months. A lot of great news has been priced in, and I think earning season is kind of bringing the market kind of back into to focus on the fundamentals. Um, and so I think it's just a sign of the times. People, you know, when you see your portfolio going up 25% in three months, you're not really interested in making one or two percent here. You're going for multibaggers, as they like to say online. But I think it's also important to frame the conversation. People are not all in and all out. They are using a portion of their portfolio that is for fun and speculation and, you know, growth, uh, for these opportunities and not necessarily taking the excessive risk that I think a lot of people think of. And when you're watching these moves, Tom, do we have line of sight of of who's in? I mean, is this retail traders? Is it the pros? Is it both? Yeah, what I've been saying is that retail is starting the party and then forcing the institutions to dance. And what I mean by that is the institutions are kind of setting these stocks up for a meme type situation, heavily shorted brand names that like have some fundamental value, but you know, are not going to zero. And then we have sophisticated investors online, retail, using market mechanics against the institutions. So in the situation of calls earlier this week, the stock moved from $11 to $20 in the pre-market. It doesn't take a whole lot of volume on the retail side to be able to move a stock like that. And if you're an institution that's short, uh, or or hedged against that stock, you got to make that move at the open. And so it's kind of a situation where retail is saying, hey, this situation doesn't make sense to us. There's a fundamental case to be made here, and we're going to move the market in our direction and the institutions will have to adjust. Let's say you're a GoPro or Krispy Kreme. Yeah. You see these moves, right? What should be, you think time, your reaction, your response? How should you, if at all, try and take advantage of it? Yeah. I mean, every company with high short interest right now should be thinking about how do we convert conversation and attention into capital and long-term shareholder conviction. The difference between this being a short-term move where the stock just pops and and moves lower is management's ability to go out there, raise capital, uh, get their balance sheets in focus, and really tell a compelling story for shareholders to say, hey, this is not just a trade. We're really turning this business around. There's a fundamental reason to be involved here. And I think it's the investor relations departments, the the executives that are using online platforms like Stocktwits, like Twitter, like Reddit, to get their messaging out there and tell a compelling story. Those are going to be the ones that stick around. Those who choose not to engage with retail are likely going to see their stock fall. Let's have another another name I want you to take on Opendoor. Uh, we had EMJ's Eric Jackson on on YFi talking about the name. Take a listen to what he had to say. Yeah. Open door's not a meme stock. This is a real turnaround legitimate turnaround story. It's an opportunity for anybody who missed Carvana. And I missed it at 350. I got in at $15 on Carvana. So I think I do know what to look for in these kinds of situations, um, and I think that this is the ground floor for a move to 82. What what do you make of Mr. Jackson's comments? He's talking Opendoor and he saying, listen, this is a real story. This is a fundamental story. What do you make of that? Yeah. I think individual story aside, I think that's what's kind of attracting people to these situations. They see a company that's beaten down, highly bet against, and there's some glimpse of a fundamental case to be made where somebody can say, you know what? I I kind of believe that. You know, maybe it shouldn't be trading at 82, but maybe it shouldn't be trading at a dollar. And there's a lot of room in between there. And so we're seeing people reassess situations that have otherwise been left for dead. And as retail gets into these names, institutions also have to adjust and, again, I think it's going to come down to the management team of Opendoor. What do they do with this situation? Um, how do they create a compelling narrative? Because right now it's all about the stock price. It's all about what's happening with trading, but what's actually happening with the company? What are they going to do from a strategy perspective to get this back on the right footing? More broadly, Tom, I'm also just interested in the Stocktwits community. How do they feel right now about this market? Where do they stand on this rally after the move we've seen after that April low? Yeah. I mean, it's quite, uh, quite amazing. 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