Trump and Pardons: "No MAGA Left Behind"

If there is one thing that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has made clear since he began his second term as President, it is that he plans to rule as a dictator. Instead of passing legislation through Congress, he relies on "rule by Sharpie" as he signs countless executive actions. Contrary to Trump's belief — as well as that of much of the public, including a disappointingly large portion of the media — executive orders, actions, and memoranda do not create, modify, or eliminate laws. They are directives to Executive Branch staff, essentially glorified interoffice memos. As a result, many of Trump's executive actions have been challenged in court, where they have routinely been blocked. As Trump has been learning, there are limits to his executive power. There is one area, however, where a President's authority is unchallenged. That is the power to pardon, commute sentences, and otherwise grant clemency. Like a king granting favors to his subjects, Trump has embarked on a pattern of using clemency to reward his supporters, often appearing to act in return for favors. In doing so, Trump has shown an extremely high tolerance, if not outright support, for corruption. Through his uses of executive clemency powers, Trump has legitimized corruption by Republicans or others who have won his approval. Just in case there was any doubt about this, yesterday Trump's recently appointed U.S. Pardon Attorney, Ed Martin, made this perfectly clear, tweeting "No MAGA left behind."

Immediately upon returning to the White House, Trump used his clemency powers to pardon more than 1,500 defendants convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill attack. Trump commuted the sentences of 14 others. This action clearly telegraphed Trump's intention to use clemency to benefit his supporters. The next day, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the illegal online black market website Silk Road. Ulbricht had been serving a life sentence for distributing drugs over the Internet, fraud, and money laundering. However, his fate had become a major issue within the Libertarian Party and the cryptocurrency community. Trump spoke at the 2024 Libertarian Party National Convention and promised to pardon Ulbricht in return for Libertarian Party support. While the Libertarian Party ultimately endorsed its own candidate, many prominent Libertarians and some state parties did endorse Trump. Trump's pardon of Ulbricht was clearly in return for political favors.

Two days after pardoning Ulbricht, Trump pardoned 24 anti-abortion activists. These individuals had all been convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and had been involved in either physically blocking access to abortion clinics or vandalizing the clinics. Some of those pardoned had broken into a clinic and stolen fetal tissue. Trump issued the pardons just before the annual National March for Life, and they were clearly a reward to another special interest group that had backed him. Like Trump's pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, this move signalled that violent protest on behalf of causes Trump supports would be excused.

In March, Trump pardoned Brian Kelsey, a Republican former state senator from Tennessee who had pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations. Kelsey's pardon had been supported by a trio of Republican Members of Congress. Trump may have been rewarding the three, Representatives Mark Green, Chuck Fleischmann, and Andy Ogles, for their support of a continuing resolution that had passed the House the previous week. That resolution passed by only 4 votes, making these 3 votes very important.

Also in March, Trump pardoned Trevor Milton, the former Chairman and CEO of the Nikola Corporation. Milton had been convicted of making false statements to investors in order to drive investor demand. Nikola was attempting to manufacture battery-electric and fuel-cell semi-trucks. In order to prove progress on the project, the company filmed a demonstration of a truck appearing to drive on its own power. In reality, the truck was rolling down a hill. Milton's attorneys were Marc Mukasey, a former Trump Organization lawyer, and Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. In addition, Milton and his wife had made a $1.8 million donation to Trump's reelection fund. The same day, Trump pardoned a number of individuals and a company that had either been convicted of or pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. This may be the first time in history that a corporation was pardoned. These violations all involved cryptocurrency, an industry in which Trump is heavily invested and demonstrates a case of Trump giving favorable treatment to an industry in which he is involved.

Trump has often portrayed himself as an ardent supporter of the police. Yet, his pardons related to January 6 excused a number of individuals who had violently attacked police officers. Trump provided another example of his putting political interests ahead of support for the police when he pardoned Michele Fiore. Fiore, a former committeewoman for the Nevada Republican Party, was convicted of stealing $70,000 meant for a memorial to fallen police officers. She used the funds for personal expenses. Fiore was a prominent supporter of Trump in Nevada. This example is similar to Trump's pardon during his first term of Steve Bannon, who had been charged with using funds raised by the "We Build the Wall" foundation to enrich himself. Apparently, Trump has no problem with MAGA supporters being fleeced as long as those fleecing them support Trump.

Yesterday, Trump pardoned former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, another long-time Trump supporter. Jenkins had been found guilty of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes. Two of the bribes that Jenkins accepted were from undercover FBI agents. Jenkins was the first individual to be pardoned since Ed Martin was appointed Pardon Attorney. Martin temporarily served as the interim District Attorney for the District of Columbia. Earlier, Martin represented many of those convicted for January 6 crimes. Martin is essentially MAGA personified. He helped organize "Stop the Steal" rallies and has been a strong advocate for Trump's contention that Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election is a hoax. He has also argued that Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election. While serving as the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Martin declined to prosecute a case of domestic violence involving a Republican Congressman. Martin is so extreme, even for today's breed of elected Republicans, that he could not be confirmed to be the permanent U.S. Attorney for D.C. That led Trump to give him his current appointment. Martin seems to be taking particular pride in Jenkins' pardon, tweeting, retweeting, and even pinning a tweet about it. It was in the midst of his celebration of Jenkins' pardon that Martin tweeted, "No MAGA left behind", suggesting that there may be much more of this sort of thing to come.

Trump has long been transactional. Based on the pattern that has been seen so far, guilt or innocence is of little concern to Trump when it comes to pardons or sentence commutations. Rather, the key question is "what have you done, or what can you do for Trump?" Now that the office of the Pardon Attorney is filled by an avid partisan who sees himself as an advocate for MAGA supporters, the prison to pardon pipeline is bound to be full of MAGA diehards or recent converts to the cause.

Update: As luck would have it, today's New York Times reported about a pardon about which I had not previously been aware. This pardon involved Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes. Walczak's mother had raised millions of dollars for Republican campaigns, including Trump's. However, Trump did not act on Walczak's application until his mother attended a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner at Mar-a-Lago. After the dinner, Trump issued a full pardon for Walczak.