All the people Trump has pardoned since the election
President Trump announced a flurry of Christmas week pardons and commutations, with more expected before he leaves office on Jan. 20. Among the dozens who have so far benefited from Trump’s executive clemency power are allies and friends of the president or other Republicans, including full pardons to some who pleaded guilty to lying to federal law enforcement during the Russia investigation.
Russia investigation
The president has now used his powers to personally intervene and grant clemency in multiple cases that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III brought against Trump’s former advisers.
Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, leaves federal court with his lawyer Sidney Powell, left, on Sept. 10, 2019. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Michael Flynn: In November, Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with a Russian diplomat, though he later sought to withdraw that plea.
George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, arrives for his first appearance before congressional investigators on Oct. 25, 2018. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
George Papadopoulos: Trump gave a full pardon to George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to his 2016 campaign who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its Russia investigation. In 2018, Papadopoulos served his 14-day prison sentence.
Attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan walks out of federal court in D.C. on April 3, 2018, after being sentenced to 30 days in prison for making false statements to federal investigators. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Alex van der Zwaan: Trump also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who had worked with Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in work related to Ukraine and pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Mueller’s team. He served 30 days in prison before returning to his home in London.
Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, walks to his vehicle outside the U.S. courthouse in Washington, D.C., after a bond hearing on Nov. 6, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
Paul Manafort: Trump pardoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted in 2018 of committing financial fraud and conspiring to obstruct the investigation of his crimes. A White House announcement of the pardons said Manfort’s convictions were “premised on the Russian collusion hoax.”
Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser of President Trump, attends a protest of the results of the 2020 election in D.C. on Dec. 11. (Jim Urquhart/Reuters)
Roger Stone: Trump upgraded the clemency he had earlier provided to longtime friend Roger Stone to a full pardon. A White House announcement of the pardons said the pardon for Stone would “help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation.”
Family ties
Charles B. Kushner, flanked by his wife, Seryl Beth, left, and his attorney Alfred DeCotiis arrives at federal court for sentencing in Newark on March 4, 2005. (Marko Georgiev/AP)
Charles Kushner: Trump also pardoned Kushner, the father of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who pleaded guilty to in 2004 to having made false statements to the Federal Election Commission, witness tampering, and tax evasion stemming from $6 million in political contributions and gifts mischaracterized as business expenses.
Republican lawmakers
Among those pardoned were three former Republican congressmen, each of them convicted of federal offenses during the Trump administration. Two had been early and avid supporters of Trump’s campaign.
Then-Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, a California Republican, leaves federal court after a hearing in San Diego on July 1, 2019. (Denis Poroy/AP)
Former congressman Duncan D. Hunter (Calif.): Hunter — who prosecutors alleged used hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to pay for family vacations and theater tickets, and even to facilitate extramarital affairs — had been facing an 11-month federal prison sentence. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to misusing campaign funds. Hunter notably won reelection while under federal indictment, only to later admit wrongdoing and resign.
Congressman Chris Collins, a New York Republican speaks to reporters as he leaves a New York courthouse after a pretrial hearing in his insider-trading case on Sept. 12, 2019. (Seth Wenig/AP)
Former congressman Chris Collins (N.Y.): Former congressman Chris Collins had been serving a 26-month sentence for an insider-trading scheme and lying to the FBI. He, too, had pleaded guilty in the case. Collins and Hunter were among Trump’s first congressional supporters.
Rep. Steve Stockman, a Texas Republican, participates in a mock swearing-in ceremony in Washington on Jan. 3, 2013. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Former congressman Steve Stockman (Tex.): Stockman was about two years into a 10-year sentence, having been convicted in 2018 of conspiring to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that were meant for charity and voter education. Among those who had signed a petition seeking mercy for Stockman was attorney Sidney Powell, who has been pushing Trump’s false allegations that his election loss came as a result of fraud.
Utah state Rep. Philip Lyman: Trump also pardoned a Republican member of the Utah House of Representatives, Phil Lyman. Lyman was sentenced to spend 10 days in jail for his role in a 2014 all-terrain vehicle demonstration that was intended to protest federal land management practices.
National security
Four former government contractors — from left, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough — were convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead. (AP)
Blackwater security contractors: The four private security contractors Trump pardoned — Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard — all worked for the now-infamous Blackwater Worldwide security company, founded by Trump supporter Erik Prince. Trump has long viewed Prince as an ally, and mused about giving him more government contracts during his presidency, according to White House officials and Trump advisers.
The September 2007 shooting in which the Blackwater contractors were involved left 14 dead and 17 wounded and set off a diplomatic crisis on oversight of American security contractors during one of the deadliest periods in the Iraq War. Slatten had been sentenced to life in prison; Slough and Liberty to 15 and 14 years; and Heard to 12 years and seven months.
[Trump’s pardon of Blackwater ‘Four’ highlights deep divisions over Iraq War]
Border Patrol agents: Trump also granted pardons to two former Border Patrol agents whose sentences for shooting a suspected drug smuggler fleeing their custody had been previously commuted. According to the White House and news accounts from the time, the agents — Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean — were working near El Paso when they shot the suspected smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Dávila, as he tried to get away from them. Compean was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Ramos to 11 years. President George W. Bush had commuted their sentences.
Other pardons
Dec. 22
Trump extended pardons and commutations to several people who have been active in criminal justice reform or whose causes were championed by others in that field. In February, Trump had commuted the sentences of Crystal Munoz, Tynice Nichole Hall and Judith Negron; on Tuesday he wiped away their terms of supervised release. Weldon Angelos was released early after federal court action; Trump gave him a full pardon.
Weldon Angelos Marijuana, handgun violations
Alfonso Costa Health-care fraud
Alfred Lee Crum Helping a relative distill moonshine
Philip Esformes Medicare fraud
Otis Gordon Drug possession, distribution
Crystal Munoz Drug offenses
Judith Negron Health-care fraud
Tynice Nichole Hall Drug offenses
A statement from the White House on Dec. 22 indicated that four men and women who received clemency had been recommended by Alice Johnson, the woman whose own prison sentence after a drug conviction was commuted by Trump in 2018 following lobbying by celebrity Kim Kardashian.
Dec. 23
Trump granted additional pardons to:
James Batmasian
John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson
Gary Brugman
Christopher II X (Christopher Anthony Bryant)
Rebekah Charleston
Robert Coughlin
Margaret Hunter
Rickey Kanter
James Kassouf
Cesar Lozada
Joseph Martin Stephens
Mary McCarty
Stephanie Mohr
Joseph Occhipinti
Russell Plaisance
William J. Plemons Jr.
Topeka Sam
Mark Silijander
John Tate and Jesse Benton
Christopher Wade
Andrew Barron Worden
Rosalind S. Helderman, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey and William Neff contributed to this report.
