This Blackwater guard pleaded guilty. He atoned. But didn’t get a pardon

Since the massacre in Baghdad 13 years ago, Jeremy Ridgeway has done just about everything right. His cooperation was so extensive, his contrition so genuine that a tough-on-crime federal judge told him he was the most “unusual defendant to appear before me because I can’t think of a case where I’ve had stronger feelings myself about your commitment to change your life to do the right thing, to atone, and I’m very proud of you.” Yet, when President Trump announced pardons the Tuesday before Christmas for the four other Blackwater guards responsible for the slaughter at Nisoor Square on that bloody, September Sunday, Ridgeway was left out in the cold. He told jurors that a guard had bragged he had “popped the grape” of the Kia’s driver. They can own a firearm.” “If you are going to pardon four,” Patarini said, “you need to pardon Ridgeway.” Most of the contractors’ lawyers declined to comment, but William Coffield, who represented Liberty, said it was not surprising that Ridgeway didn’t get a pardon. “Only one Blackwater guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, honorably acknowledged his actions, courageously accepted responsibility for them, and committed himself to the truth in order to achieve both his own personal atonement, and to deliver a measure of justice for the victims and their families,” Sullivan said.