The man who pardoned a hometown hero visits the Opera House tonight

The Rochester Voice did a lengthy series titled 'A Hero Betrayed' that chronicled the plight of Evan Liberty and three Blackwater colleagues who were wrongly imprisoned until pardoned by President Trump, inset. (Rocheser Voice graphic; Trump (Courtesy).

ROCHESTER - Tonight will be President Trump's first visit to Rochester since his pardon of native son Evan Liberty, a Spaulding High School grad, decorated Marine and former Blackwater Worldwide security guard who was wrongly imprisoned in the so-called 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007.
Former President Obama, President Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were all part of the federal government's nefarious scheme to imprison for decades Liberty and three of his Blackwater colleagues.
In fact, if it weren't for Trump's presidency the four would all still be behind bars.
The best Christmas present ever came to Liberty's parents on Dec. 22, 2020, when they learned around 6 p.m. that their youngest son was freed from a federal Pennsylvania prison.
"He's been pardoned," Brian Liberty told The Rochester Voice that night. "He found out about it when someone came to his cell and said 'You're outta here, pack your stuff.'"
Liberty, 41, had spent more than six years, 2,254 nights, behind bars for a crime he was not guilty of.
The pardon brought to an end an agonizing 13-year battle to prove his innocence in the shooting outside Baghdad's Green Zone, where Liberty and his Blackwater convoy Raven 23 were directed to protect another Blackwater unit that was delivering a diplomat to safety on Sept. 16, 2007.
As Raven 23 set up in a traffic circle to clear a path for the other unit, Iraqi insurgents dressed as policeman opened fire on Raven 23.
Liberty and his fellow Blackwater guards returned fire, and in the wake of the firefight, Iraqi officials said at least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed.
While Evan Liberty and other Raven 23 members told investigators they were fired at and were only defending themselves, U.S. prosecutors chose to indict them for manslaughter, claiming they panicked and fired upon unarmed civilians.
In 2009 a federal judge dismissed the case for prosecutorial misconduct and withholding exculpatory evidence, but the Obama administration chose instead to promise Iraq a continued effort to punish the men and sent then-Vice President Biden to Iraq to publicly promise so to the Iraqi president, hence Raven 23 later came to be known as the Biden 4.
A recent motion to void the charges sent to the D.C. judge who presided over their trial explains the court's vindictive prosecution and how it unfolded.
"Prosecutorial misconduct has run stem to stern in this case," the motion asserts. "The impetus for the prosecution's zeal to 'secure justice for the Iraqi people,' as then Vice-President Joseph Biden publicly promised, overwhelmed prosecutorial discretion and resulted in a crabbed governmental mindset - not to follow the evidence proving justification and self-defense - but rather, to cobble together an inferential narrative to win at all costs and serve a foreign power, sacrificing protections provided to the (Biden 4) by the U.S. Constitution."
Others pardoned in the case included Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough and Dustin Heard, who had all been behind bars since Oct. 22, 2014.
The impetus for pardon gained steam in May 2020 when the Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus sent a letter to President Trump urging him to see justice done.
On the Wednesday prior to his pardon, Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told The Rochester Voice that President Trump had not forgotten the men of Raven 23 and that their pardons were on his radar.
"President Trump has been exceedingly insightful and perceptive regarding government improprieties and injustices," Gohmert said in a statement sent The Rochester Voice. "I am sure he will use his superb judgment in seeing that justice prevails."
President Trump's speech at the Rochester Opera House begins tonight at 7 p.m.
Editor's note: The Rochester Voice did a lengthy series of articles titled "A Hero Betrayed" describing the plight of Liberty and the government's willful misconduct in prosecuting the case. Readers can search The Rochester Voice archives to view the articles. Key words: Evan Liberty, Raven 23, Nisour Square.