Trump is stretching his pardon power – to the delight of his Maga acolytes

Donald Trump pardoned the hosts of a reality TV show convicted of defrauding banks to fund their luxurious lifestyle in the same week that he pardoned a sheriff who accepted bribes from businessman in order to make them into law enforcement officers.

The latest pardons build on Trump’s pattern of granting clemency to people who align with him politically and who he believes were part of a justice system weaponized against conservatives, particularly Trump supporters.

Trump, who was himself prosecuted by the federal government and state governments, is stretching US presidential pardon power beyond its norms, much to the delight of his Make America Great Again (Maga) acolytes and conservative lawmakers, who previously took former president Joe Biden to task for his last-minute pardons of his family members and allies.

Trump started his second term with a massive act of clemency: granting pardons and commutations for all those convicted for their roles in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, including some who had engaged in violence that day.

Since then, he has pardoned a host of people convicted of fraud or public corruption, as well as a group of anti-abortion protesters who blocked access to a clinic.

Those pardoned include the former governor of Illinois who now calls himself a “Trump-ocrat”, the founder of the Silk Road darknet online market, two police officers convicted for their roles in the death and coverup of a young woman, a former state senator in Tennessee, the founder of an electric vehicle company, a nursing home executive and a woman who collected money for a police memorial who used the money for herself instead.

The moves to pardon people convicted of fraud and public corruption charges shows how the justice department is de-emphasizing these kinds of cases, NBC News reports. The pardons come alongside dropped public corruption cases, most notably one against New York City mayor Eric Adams.

“Pardoning a sheriff who took cash for deputy badges is just the latest in a string of actions this president has taken to undermine any effort to hold officials accountable to the public they are sworn to serve,” Stacey Young, a former justice department official, told NBC News.

In several instances, the convicted or their attorneys made appeals to Trump by saying they were politically prosecuted for their views.

The lawyer for Julie and Todd Chrisley, the reality TV stars pardoned on Wednesday, had put together binders to show the Trump administration why his clients should be granted clemency, the New York Times reported. Alex Little wrote in these documents that the Chrisleys’ conviction “exemplifies the weaponization of justice against conservatives and public figures, eroding basic constitutional protections”.

Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive, was pardoned by Trump for misusing employee tax money to fund his lifestyle, after his mother had attended a $1m per person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in April, the New York Times reported. In his bid for a pardon, he had brought up his mother’s political connections, saying her role in raising money for Trump and boosting conservative causes motivated the Biden justice department to go after him.

The office of the pardon attorney is typically run by a career appointee, not a political appointee chosen for their adherence to the president’s agenda. Presidents at times go outside the pardon attorney’s office for the less routine pardons, often for their political allies, as Biden did when he pardoned his family members. There are criteria the justice department would follow when considering a typical pardon application, including showing rehabilitation and remorse, though the president decides whether to act on their recommendation.

Liz Oyer, the former pardon attorney who was fired for refusing to recommend gun rights restoration for actor Mel Gibson, told Newshour that Trump’s use of pardons are “not at all how pardons normally work”. His pardons show a pattern of people who have shown political loyalty or who are wealthy and well-connected, Oyer said.

“In the current administration, there is no path forward that we know of right now for ordinary people to be considered for clemency,” Oyer told Newshour. “And the other thing that’s really striking and shocking is that the president is granting clemency to individuals who owe tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution and fines and other financial penalties. And it’s never been done by any other president.”

Now, though, a political appointee is in charge. Ed Martin, the recently appointed pardon attorney, is a staunch Trump ally who advocated for pardons for January 6 defendants before he took a role in the administration. Trump also appointed a “pardon czar” in February who will recommend people for clemency.

Politico reported this week that, in Martin’s first week on the job, he was reviewing an application for a full pardon for Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia group who received a commutation from Trump as part of the January 6 clemency, but not a full pardon. Martin has said he will investigate Biden’s preemptive pardons issued just before he left office.

Some in Maga world are now pushing for federal pardons for Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted in the killing of George Floyd, and Tina Peters, a Colorado election clerk convicted for allowing unauthorized access to election machines as part of a quest to find voter fraud. Both of these cases involve state crimes, Peters exclusively, but have become cause célèbre for Trump allies, who want to see the administration pressure for their release.