Donald Trump granted only one pardon during his first year in office, the last time he served as president.
Now, just days into his second term, Trump has averaged one pardon for every few minutes he has been back in power.
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Pardons and commutations have featured prominently in Trump’s first week in the White House, even as an avalanche of executive orders covering everything from technology policy, diversity initiatives and the federal workforce have engulfed Washington. They have been a way for Trump, with a simple wave of his pen, to reward groups of people who supported him.
“There were campaign promises that President Trump made,” a Trump official said. “That’s what you’re seeing now. I’m not sure you see rounds of pardons everywhere. [his term]But what I can say is that it was important for him to keep his promises.”
The vast majority came during Trump’s first day in office, when he surprised even some of his own supporters and aides by pardoning virtually everyone charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. , including those convicted of committing acts. of violence against law enforcement.
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But Trump didn’t stop there. On Tuesday, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, a bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison for creating and running Silk Road, a dark web black market that sold illegal drugs. Ulbricht’s cause had been championed by libertarians, and Trump promised to pardon Ulbricht during his campaign.
The next day, Trump pardoned two Washington, D.C. police officers who were convicted for their role in the 2020 death of a young man on a moped.
And on Thursday, the president pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists a day before the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally. Their cause was championed by conservative lawmakers who argued that President Joe Biden’s administration overreached in its prosecutions.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was one of those advocates. He tweeted Tuesday night urging the president to quickly pardon the activists. On Thursday, just before Trump granted those pardons, Hawley spoke directly to the president about the matter.
“When we spoke, he was already familiar with the general situation,” Hawley said. “It’s very fair to say I was up to date. And we had a very good conversation that left me with a very clear impression that he was going to do what he ultimately did.”
Hawley said he pointed to the timing of Friday’s March for Life in his speech to the president about why he should expedite pardons.
“I just said, ‘Listen, these people have been waiting a long time,’” Hawley said. “Some of them are quite old and it would be great to do it now. So he left me with the clear impression that he was going to act sooner rather than later, and he did.”
Presidents rarely use their royal clemency power in their first days in office and typically reserve the vast majority of often controversial decisions until the end of their term. Biden, whose White House touted that he had offered far more clemency than his predecessors for groups of people such as nonviolent drug offenders, saved his most controversial pardons for his final weeks in office, including preemptive pardons for some of their relatives. .
During his first term, Trump issued only a little more than two dozen pardons before losing the 2020 election. He issued dozens more during his final days in office.
“He’s already broken with previous presidents by doing so many things in the first 48 hours,” said Angela McArdle, chairwoman of the Libertarian National Committee, which advocated for Ulbricht’s pardon. “It’s incredible. I mean, it’s set a new precedent.”
Trump allies say they do not expect a similar wave of pardons in the coming weeks. But several others see an opportunity and want to advance their cause before a president who proclaimed “I love freeing people,” as McArdle recalled him saying in a conversation at Mar-a-Lago in December 2023.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. plans to meet with Trump to give him a list of proposed pardons compiled by several organizations, including the Congressional Black Caucus, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., one of the people his father wants Trump to pardon. — he said in an interview with NBC News on Friday.
The younger Jackson, who served time for misappropriating campaign funds for personal use, requested a pardon from President Joe Biden, but did not receive it. Jackson suggested that if Trump meets with his father, it could be the 83-year-old civil rights leader’s last visit to the White House.
“While Rev. Jackson strongly disagrees with the pardon granted by the president on January 6, [offenses]”Reverend Jackson recognizes that … the president has the absolute right to pardon whomever he chooses,” the former congressman said. “And Joe Biden had the absolute right to forgive only his family. And he had the absolute right to ignore everyone else.”
Biden was expected to grant pardons to at least several former elected officials after being pressured by fellow Democrats to take such action, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
They included former members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Jackson, this person said. Biden allies who pushed for clemency were stunned when he did not grant it before leaving office; some of them viewed his inaction as selfish, given that Biden made sure to grant preemptive pardons to his family members minutes before Trump was sworn in as his successor.
Meanwhile, a lawyer who represented several clients seeking clemency from Biden said part of his calculation was that being rejected by Biden could make their cases more attractive to Trump.
Former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is also among those seeking Trump’s pardon through unofficial channels. Menendez has used allies to take his case to the president and ask for a commutation of his sentence or a pardon, according to several people familiar with the matter. Menendez sought and failed to obtain a pardon from Biden before leaving office.
Menendez has been advised to ask Trump for clemency directly before his sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday, according to a person familiar with his efforts. The crux of the former senator’s argument would be that he has been a political target of the Justice Department as Trump believes he was, this person said.
Menendez pleaded not guilty to federal corruption but was convicted in July. He resigned from the Senate in August and potentially faces years in prison. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, faces similar charges and has pleaded not guilty. Even before Trump won the November election, the former senator told people close to him that he might have a better chance of winning a pardon, NBC News reported, given his contentious relationship with Biden and his position that his prosecution was political.
At the same time, Menendez joined all Senate Democrats in voting to convict Trump during his two impeachment trials. He has reviewed Trump’s 2020 pardon for former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, who was serving a 14-year prison sentence after being convicted on federal corruption charges, to help inform his efforts to receive one from the president as well. NBC News has reported.
Advocates know they must appeal to Trump’s disdain for federal law enforcement, particularly after he was charged in multiple jurisdictions during Biden’s term. In announcing his pardon of Ulbricht, Trump wrote on social media: “The scum who worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern use of the government as a weapon against me.”
Trump first became interested in Ulbricht’s case amid an effort to drum up libertarian support, as McArdle explained, saying that Ric Grenell, who was recently tapped as one of Trump’s special envoys, reached out to start a dialogue. on how Trump could win over this demographic. .
During their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, McArdle said that committing to releasing Ulbricht from prison “would have a big impact.” He finally promised to do so at last year’s Libertarian Party convention.
“I even spoke to his staff … right after the inauguration, and they assured me that the president was going to keep his promise,” McArdle said. “And sure enough, it was like 36 hours after I was sworn in.”
Grenell and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
McArdle suggested another pardon that may be on the horizon: Roger Ver, a former California resident and bitcoin investor facing fraud and tax evasion charges. Elon Musk, ally and confidant of Trump, the richest man in the world, has supported Ver’s cause.
There is a formal process to receive a presidential pardon as established by the Department of Justice. It involves filing a petition through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which then reviews the case before determining whether to elevate it to the president. But that process is not always followed.
Hawley, however, said his sense is that “there is a fleet of lawyers who are working on” the pardon cases that come before the president.
“I imagine his team of lawyers has spent much of the last two and a half months since his election working on these different things,” he said. “I mean, to write an executive order, it’s not just done in 10 minutes. “You have to be very, very careful.”
A senior Senate Republican aide said that in his early days, Trump “hit everyone” he needed to with his clemency offers, and it remains to be seen if there will be more.
“He got the pro-lifers,” this person said. “They got the libertarians as their man. They got the J6ers their boys. I don’t know if there really is anyone left who is a priority. But who knows.”
