Trump white-collar criminal pardons cost public $1bn, says ex-DoJ official

The justice department’s pardon attorney, who was recently fired, has claimed on social media that Donald Trump’s recent wave of pardoning white-collar criminals has erased more than “$1bn in debts owed by wealthy Americans” to the public purse.

In a TikTok video, Liz Oyer, who has said that she was terminated in March after refusing to comply with an order to restore the gun rights of the actor Mel Gibson – a supporter of Trump’s – explained that “when you’re convicted of a financial crime like fraud or embezzlement, the law requires you to pay back the money that you stole. It’s called restitution.”

However, she said, “the president has the power to pardon which can wipe out your entire sentence including your obligation to pay back the money.”

Oyer alleged: “In total, Donald Trump has granted pardons that have wiped out over $1bn in debts owed by wealthy Americans who have committed fraud and broken the law.”

In the video, Oyer highlights the case of Michele Fiore, a former Republican politician from Nevada, who was convicted of wire fraud last year.

She was accused of misusing more than $70,000 she raised to build statues in honor of two slain police officers. Instead of building the statues, prosecutors said that she used the funds on “personal and political expenses”.

The White House pardoned Fiore, and according to Oyer, this released her from repaying those funds.

In a different video, Oyer pointed to Trump’s pardon of Trevor Milton, the founder of an electric vehicle startup, who was convicted of fraud in 2023 and sentenced to four years in prison.

The Washington Post reported that the judge had not yet determined the restitution amount, but that federal prosecutors estimated that Milton owed more than $680m to defrauded shareholders.

Notably, Milton and his wife contributed more than $1.8m to a Trump re-election campaign.

Oyer said his pardon erased the restitution being sought.

The Post reported that Oyer added up the alleged restitution amounts for the relevant individuals convicted of stealing.

The newspaper also noted that some of Trump’s pardon recipients had not yet been sentenced, so their owed amounts had not been finalized by the courts.

Additionally, the Post reported that Trump pardoned the cryptocurrency exchange HDR Global Trading (BitMEX), which eliminated a $100m fine against the exchange for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Trump also pardoned several company executives who had pleaded guilty to financial crimes.

Oyer told the Post it was “unprecedented for a president to grant pardons that have the effect of wiping out so much debt owed by people who have committed frauds”.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Last month, Oyer, who served in Joe Biden’s administration, testified before Congress about her termination and the Trump administration’s treatment of the justice department and law firms.

According to Oyer’s lawyer, the justice department had planned to send armed US marshals to deliver a letter to her home warning her about testifying.