I guess it kind of "sticks it" to Google, who Trump thinks is "so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous!"

I have no idea if there is such a thing as a "revenge pardon", but I guess it's a thing now.

(Incidentally, I wanted to use an exact Trump quote in that first paragraph, and I found it here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-...)

or they recognizes the need for the US to have a modern and advanced car industry_

How does stealing trade secrets from your employer advance the car industry? Nobody will pay for R&D if competitors can use it for free.

His conviction is based on being a fall guy for Uber’s corporate espionage.

His pardon could be interpreted as a strike against “piracy is theft” mindset and the idea of “intellectual property” in general that HN often rallies against.

I’m quite disappointed by Trump’s pardons but this one is actually a good one.

> His conviction is based on being a fall guy for Uber’s corporate espionage

Do you have any evidence that he didn't commit the crimes he is convicted of? Because his lawyers would've loved to talk to you last year.

yeah it struck me as odd. Got downvoted like crazy for this, which is weird since I'd expect people to be leaning towards intellectual freedom here.

It's not as if I said he was not guilty, but rather saying that he would have a lot of information on self driving cars. Which is what he was charged with in the first place.

He co-founded three major self-driving car programs. How is it not obvious that having a well functioning car industry would be beneficial to USA?