Pardoning Supporters
Dan Merica and Matthew Choi at WP:
Trump began his presidency by issuing a blanket pardon to virtually all Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants, but his use of the pardon power has only intensified since then. Here is an incomplete list of all the people to whom Trump has granted clemency in his first months as president:
- His most prominent allies involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani
- A former Tennessee House speaker and his top aide who had been convicted of corruption-related charges
- A retired New York police sergeant convicted of stalking and acting as an unregistered foreign agent in a Chinese government plot
- The founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in 2023
- New York Mets great Darryl Strawberry, who pleaded guilty to a felony after he failed to report $350,000 in income from autographs, personal appearances and sales of memorabilia
- Former representative George Santos (R-New York), whose sentence for identity theft and wire fraud was commuted
- Ross Ulbricht, the founder of online drug market Silk Road who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges related to his website
- Twenty-three people who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics
- Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois who was convicted on multiple charges of corruption in 2011
- Todd and Julie Chrisley, the former stars of USA Network’s “Chrisley Knows Best,” who were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion
- Michele Fiore, a former Republican Las Vegas City Council member convicted of fraud last year for using money meant to honor a slain police officer for plastic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding
- Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, who was convicted of federal bribery and fraud charges in December
(You can see the complete list from the Justice Department here.)
The list highlights just how much Trump relishes one of the clearest powers of the presidency, as he grants pardons for crimes like fraud, bribery and corruption. The people granted these pardons are often Trump supporters, many of whom have close ties to the president and his movement.
“No MAGA left behind,” Ed Martin, Trump’s pardon attorney, tweeted this year following Jenkins’s pardon.
