{"id":2645,"date":"2026-10-13T22:03:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2026-10-13T22:03:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:03:57","slug":"in-trumps-pardons-for-public-officials-republicans-win-most-of-the-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2645","title":{"rendered":"In Trump\u2019s pardons for public officials, Republicans win most of the mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In October 2024, a federal jury in Las Vegas convicted Michele Fiore, a local elected official and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, of charity fraud. Fiore, the jury found, solicited donations for a slain police officer\u2019s memorial and spent nearly $80,000 of it on plastic surgery, her daughter\u2019s wedding and rent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury deliberated for less than two hours, including a lunch break, before finding Fiore guilty on seven charges brought by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

Weeks before she was to be sentenced last year, Trump granted Fiore \u201ca full and unconditional pardon,\u201d sparing her the prospect of decades in prison, payment of criminal fines, and any restitution to donors whose funds she misspent.<\/p>\n

In a statement at the time, a White House spokesperson noted Fiore\u2019s support for the president and said that Biden-era prosecutors had targeted the politician, known in Nevada as \u201cLady Trump,\u201d because of \u201coutspoken conservative views.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to Reuters<\/em>, Fiore criticised prosecutors and witnesses and maintained her innocence. \u201cI have never taken one red cent of donations for my personal use,\u201d she wrote. She declined to answer detailed questions about her career, case and conviction.<\/p>\n

Fiore is one of at least 85 public officials granted clemency by Trump after charges or convictions related to corruption, according to the first comprehensive examination of such measures over the president\u2019s two terms in office so far.<\/p>\n

The Reuters<\/em> review shows that the political impetus behind Fiore\u2019s pardon wasn\u2019t an outlier: The recipients of Trump\u2019s clemency for public officials overwhelmingly have been fellow Republicans or vocal proponents of his MAGA movement.<\/p>\n

They include at least 11 of 15 Republican members of Congress convicted of wrongdoing over the past two decades. Of the 85 public officials identified in Reuters<\/em>\u2019 analysis, 36 were elected as Republicans and another 19 were Republicans appointed to political office.<\/p>\n

Nine others had either campaigned for Trump or publicly espoused support for his agenda. Only four were known Democrats, including one Texas congressman whom Trump erroneously believed would switch parties after the pardon. The news agency couldn\u2019t determine partisan affiliation for the 17 other officials.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s repeated acts of clemency for public officials charged with or convicted of corruption-related crimes have led to what more than a dozen current and former prosecutors, along with other legal experts and political researchers, say is impunity for people meant to uphold the public trust.<\/p>\n

The impunity, these people said, can encourage more wrongdoing by other officials, eroding the foundational democratic concept that no one, no matter what office they hold, is above the law. The problem, they added, is compounded if the concept of clemency is tainted by perceptions of partisan or personal bias.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is trying to end accountability for public officials,\u201d said Phillip Halpern, a retired assistant US attorney in San Diego who prosecuted two Republican congressmen Trump later pardoned. \u201cHe\u2019s setting a standard to encourage corruption and allow it to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s absolution has allowed nearly three-quarters of the 85 officials in Reuters<\/em>\u2019 analysis to leave prison early, evade trials or sentencing, or regain eligibility to exercise certain freedoms, like owning a gun.<\/p>\n

In total, the analysis found, these people were spared 130 years behind bars and avoided payment of more than $15 million in financial penalties. More than half of the recipients have remained in politics either as public officials or as vocal supporters of Trump and his agenda. That includes Fiore, who isn\u2019t working but is still earning a government salary as a Nevada county justice of the peace.<\/p>\n

Noting his own indictments by federal prosecutors during the presidency of Joe Biden, Trump has said he aims to right wrongs by a DOJ that he has claimed \u2013 repeatedly and without evidence \u2013 targeted innocent people for partisan purposes. \u201cI am your warrior,\u201d he told a conservative gathering in 2023, while campaigning for re-election. \u201cI am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Administration officials have repeatedly defended the president\u2019s use of the pardon power, granted by the Constitution and ample in scope. Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump grants clemency for \u201cmany Americans unjustly prosecuted by the Biden administration\u2019s weaponised Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is trying to end accountability for public officials. He\u2019s setting a standard to encourage corruption and allow it to flourish\u201d. says Phillip Halpern, a retired assistant US attorney in San Diego<\/p>\n

Reuters\u2019<\/em> review encompassed clemency recipients who held an elected or appointed government role or were employed in the civil or uniformed services. Most were paid from government coffers.<\/p>\n

Recipients included seven advisors to Trump, three DOJ officials, three governors, 10 state lawmakers, two city council members, two judges and two sheriffs. Their charges and crimes included fraud, bribery, conspiracy, racketeering, obstruction of justice and others.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/em>\u2019 tally of public officials doesn\u2019t include at least 18 active-duty military, police and government employees who were among those charged with or convicted for storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Before Trump issued his blanket clemency for the roughly 1,500 people involved in the riot, many of these 18 had used their official credentials to rally others against the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Some of Trump\u2019s predecessors have also drawn fire for controversial use of the pardon power, most recently Biden because of clemency for his son, Hunter, convicted on federal gun and tax charges. Both Biden and former President Barack Obama commuted more prison sentences than Trump, cutting short the punishments of many non-violent drug offenders. But over his nearly six years in office so far, Trump has granted far more pardons than any other recent president, particularly through his mass clemency for the Capitol rioters.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Sending signals<\/h3>\n

Earlier this year, Reuters<\/em> examined the president\u2019s upending of the pardon process. In nearly 2,000 acts of clemency, Trump has forgone the longstanding practice of presidents working with the DOJ to evaluate who should merit clemency. He has instead relied on a growing number of clemency consultants who, leveraging close ties to the president or his inner circle, advocate for would-be recipients.<\/p>\n

The shift, the news agency found, has marginalised the DOJ, where a series of guidelines shaped the process for more than a century and sought to ensure that recipients admit guilt and espouse remorse before receiving clemency.<\/p>\n

Among many of those whom Trump pardoned, Reuters<\/em> found, remorse has mostly been replaced by defiance, expressions of disdain for prosecutors and courts, and a sense of victimisation similar to that voiced by the president himself.<\/p>\n

Of the 85 public officials in the Reuters<\/em> review, more than three-quarters didn\u2019t cooperate with prosecutors. Most neither pleaded guilty nor publicly expressed remorse after their conviction.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s repeated pardoning of public officials, legal experts say, is part of a broader weakening of the federal government\u2019s tools to fight corruption in the first place. Consider the administration\u2019s management of the DOJ\u2019s Public Integrity Section, a prosecutorial office established after the Watergate crisis to fight corruption and prevent the politicisation of criminal cases.<\/p>\n

More than half of the public officials in Reuters<\/em>\u2019 review were charged or convicted in cases prosecuted with involvement by the Public Integrity Section. That team, based in Washington, numbered about 30 at the end of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

The squad now has just two full-time prosecutors, according to four people familiar with the office\u2019s operations. In addition to several senior prosecutors in the unit who resigned in protest of new department directives, others moved elsewhere in the DOJ.<\/p>\n

Audrey Cook, a DOJ spokesperson, in a statement wrote that the department \u201cremains committed to identifying, investigating, and prosecuting public corruption wherever the facts and the law warrant it.\u201d She added: \u201cNo one should mistake the President\u2019s use of his constitutional pardon authority for a change in the law or a license to engage in criminal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which historically worked closely with the Public Integrity Section, Director Kash Patel last year shut down an elite squad that focused on corruption and fired some of its investigators. Patel claimed the squad, known as CR-15, was \u201cweaponising law enforcement\u201d in its investigation of false claims by Trump and Republican lawmakers that Biden stole the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n

FBI officials didn\u2019t respond to requests from Reuters<\/em> for comment.<\/p>\n

Changes like those to the Public Integrity Section have slowed prosecution of corruption cases.<\/p>\n

The DOJ generally charges hundreds of federal, state and local officials with corruption-related crimes annually, according to summaries the DOJ provided to Congress each year before Trump resumed office in 2025. But so far in his second term, the DOJ hasn\u2019t disclosed the start of a single new bribery case, according to a June study authored by two former anti-corruption prosecutors and published by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would any prosecutor or FBI agent want to do this kind of work now?\u201d said Molly Gaston, one of the authors and one of several DOJ veterans fired by the administration because of their involvement in Trump\u2019s prosecution. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing but a career killer.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those convicted before the recent pullback in prosecution, Trump\u2019s pardons can be career revivers. And for Trump, the pardons can generate goodwill that the recipients then redeploy on behalf of the president and his agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf President Trump asks me to do just about anything, I\u2019ll do it,\u201d said Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor, a Democrat, who was convicted last decade for crimes including his effort to sell Obama\u2019s vacant Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Since leaving prison and receiving a commutation and pardon from Trump, Blagojevich has reemerged as a lobbyist, earning $50,000 this year for helping a fugitive former Indiana city councilman seek a pardon, federal lobbying records show. He is also busy promoting a forthcoming book, \u201cFramed, F*cked, and Freed,\u201d relating his legal travails and featuring a blurb from Trump calling Blagojevich\u2019s conviction \u201ca terrible injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"<\/picture><\/div>
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich\u2019s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blagojevich told Reuters<\/em> that Trump, during a phone call after his pardon in 2025, said he would support a political comeback for the former governor. Reuters couldn\u2019t independently confirm the details of the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe signal he sends with the pardon power is: If you help me personally, Donald Trump, I will help you personally, even if you engaged in corruption,\u201d said Rachel Barkow, a New York University law professor and clemency expert.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cA higher standard\u201d<\/h3>\n

Some of Trump\u2019s pardons, including Fiore\u2019s, have prompted outrage from pro-Trump partisans. Before Trump pardoned him last year, John Rowland, a Connecticut Republican who served as a state lawmaker, congressman and governor, had a rap sheet as a repeat offender.<\/p>\n

In 2004, he pleaded guilty and served 10 months in prison for accepting illegal gifts as governor. A decade later, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison for concealing payments for consulting he had done on behalf of congressional candidates. That conviction included charges of conspiracy and falsification of records.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe obviously didn\u2019t learn his lesson,\u201d said Christopher Shays, a former Republican congressman who represented Connecticut for over two decades, overlapping with much of Rowland\u2019s time in Congress and the governor\u2019s mansion. \u201cIf you have public officials who believe they can get away with being corrupt, there will be more corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Connecticut<\/picture><\/div>
Connecticut Governor John Rowland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Trump pardoned Rowland in May of last year, neither the president nor the White House gave a reason for the clemency or commented on it publicly. Rowland, in a statement at the time, expressed gratitude but didn\u2019t detail the process that led to it. In an email to Reuters<\/em>, he declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

As with the many others granted clemency by Trump, the paths to pardons for some public officials lay through well-connected advocates who have no ties to law or criminal justice.<\/p>\n

A Tennessee lawmaker and one of his aides, for instance, was each sentenced last year to more than two years in prison and fines of more than $20,000 for a bribery and kickback scheme using taxpayer money. Trump gave them full pardons after a country singer vouched for them on their behalf.<\/p>\n

In 2019, local press reported that Cade Cothren, then an aide to the speaker of the lower house of the Tennessee legislature, had texted profane and racist messages to his boss and others, and said he used cocaine in the General Assembly building. Cothren resigned as a result, and Glen Casada, the speaker, relinquished his post but served out his term as a legislator.<\/p>\n

\n
\"<\/picture><\/div>
Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Months later, prosecutors said, Casada and Cothren devised a scheme to exploit a Tennessee fund that gives lawmakers money for communications with constituents. In January 2021, in the waning days of Trump\u2019s first presidency, the FBI raided the two men\u2019s homes and Casada\u2019s legislative headquarters. Both men pleaded not guilty to federal charges including conspiracy, bribery and fraud.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, a jury found that Casada helped steer $52,000 in government funds to a company run under an alias by Cothren, who, in exchange, paid Casada at least $7,100 in bribes and kickbacks.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Sherwood, an attorney for Cothren, in a statement asserted his innocence. Ed Yarbrough, Casada\u2019s attorney, declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said criticisms of the pardon, including from Republicans, were based on \u201cpersonal and political bias\u201d and that \u201cPresident Trump did the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Cade<\/picture><\/div>
Cade Cothren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time they were convicted, Trump was back in office and had begun his campaign to reverse convictions he and associates deemed politically motivated. Sensing the changing climate, attorneys and advocates for Cothren and Casada began pressing contacts in Washington, three people familiar with the effort told Reuters.<\/p>\n

One of Cothren\u2019s attorneys, two of these people said, had once represented John Rich, a songwriter, singer and longtime Trump supporter who had access to the White House. Rich, one of these people said, agreed to speak to Trump on behalf of Cothren and Casada.<\/p>\n

Days after their conviction, Rich posted on social media that he \u201cpersonally advocated\u201d to Trump on Cothren\u2019s behalf. Despite the case\u2019s origins during Trump\u2019s first administration, Rich said the former speaker had been \u201ctargeted by Biden\u2019s DOJ\u201d and \u201cpersecuted by the FBI.\u201d Rich, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, Trump pardoned both men. In a statement at the time, the White House said that the DOJ had \u201csignificantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pardon stunned even prominent Tennessee Republicans, including Randy McNally, the state\u2019s lieutenant governor. \u201cI was taken aback by the pardons and some of the comments made that they were innocent,\u201d McNally told Reuters in an interview. \u201cIndividuals that are elected to office should be held to a higher standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cNo political victim\u201d<\/h3>\n

In one instance, Trump\u2019s pardon of a public official backfired politically.<\/p>\n

A federal grand jury in Texas in 2024 indicted Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife on charges of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani energy company and a Mexican bank. For the first year of Trump\u2019s current term, prosecutors prepared for trial.<\/p>\n

But in December 2025, Trump pardoned the Cuellars.<\/p>\n

In a social media post at the time, Trump said prosecutors had unfairly targeted Cuellar for \u201cspeaking the TRUTH\u201d about problems with Biden-era border policies. Cuellar didn\u2019t respond to requests from Reuters<\/em> for comment.<\/p>\n

\n
\"<\/picture><\/div>
Congressman from Texas, Henry Cuellar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with almost every other act of clemency since Trump returned to office, according to two people familiar with the matter, the White House excluded prosecutors from any review before issuing the pardons. Traditionally, the DOJ\u2019s pardon attorney seeks feedback from the prosecutors before recommending clemency.<\/p>\n

To the dismay of Republicans, Cuellar later announced he would seek reelection next month \u2013 and once again as a Democrat. The longtime congressman, still popular in his district, could retain the seat, a victory that could help Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

In a social media post last week, Trump spoke of a Texas trip to campaign for Cuellar\u2019s opponent. He called Cuellar \u201ca disloyal and ungrateful person\u201d and \u201ca LOSER who, right now, should be serving a long-term jail sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiore, the Nevada justice of the peace, was a vocal Trump supporter even before she was arrested and charged with misappropriating charity funds. A former state assembly member and Las Vegas city councilwoman, she was well known for conflicts, including a brawl in which she allegedly broke the finger of a fellow councilwoman at Las Vegas City Hall.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Fiore filmed a campaign video for an ill-fated run for the Nevada governorship. The video came months after FBI agents raided her home in January of that year, searching for possible irregularities in financing for her city hall campaign, investigators later testified. Wielding a handgun and driving a truck bearing a \u201cTrump 2024\u201d bumper sticker \u2013 well before the president officially sought the White House again \u2013 Fiore in the video fired at bottles labelled with MAGA targets like \u201cvaccine mandates\u201d and \u201ccritical race theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Joe Biden administration is coming after me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m ready for the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her defence attorney, Michael Sanft, told Reuters that Fiore\u2019s vocal politics made her a target of federal prosecutors. Her use of the memorial donations, he added, was more \u201csloppy accounting\u201d than crime. \u201cIt was a ticky-tacky foul, in my opinion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Fiore conviction involved attorneys from the DOJ\u2019s Public Integrity Section, then still a stronger squad. Legal experts said it illustrates the value of specialised prosecutors in cases where local factors, from politics to limited expertise among area law enforcement, may make prosecution difficult. Several studies reviewed by Reuters<\/em> found that as much as 90% of the corruption convictions in the US since Watergate have been the result of federal prosecutions, by design meant to shield cases from politics or conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

Jason Frierson, the US attorney at the time, recused himself from the case because he had served in the state legislature, as a Democrat, at the same time as Fiore. \u201cI did not want the process to look political,\u201d he told Reuters<\/em>. After Frierson\u2019s recusal, three people familiar with the investigation said the FBI approached public integrity prosecutors, who agreed to pursue the case.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Las<\/picture><\/div>
Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 2024, they had enough evidence to convince a jury that Fiore had used the money raised for a statue of the slain police officer for personal purposes. The court heard witnesses including a dozen victims, among them the policeman\u2019s widow and Nevada\u2019s governor, a Republican who testified that he had donated some of his own campaign funds to the planned memorial.<\/p>\n

After the pardon, Fiore remains controversial.<\/p>\n

After her indictment, a state commission suspended Fiore from her role as a Nye County justice of the peace and for a time halted her pay. The position in Nevada is a judicial job, overseeing local courts that hear minor legal infractions. The commission later reinstated her pay, however, meaning that Fiore, by the time her term ends in January, will have collected $252,536 in salary and benefits since the indictment, according to Nye County figures.<\/p>\n

The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, the state entity that suspended her but allowed her to continue collecting her salary, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Among those disgusted are some fellow Republicans. \u201cShe was committing crimes against people in our community, including a hero,\u201d said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a longtime Republican political consultant in Las Vegas, referring to the policeman killed in the line of duty. \u201cMichele Fiore is no political victim.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October 2024, a federal jury in Las Vegas convicted Michele Fiore, a local elected official and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, of charity fraud. Fiore, the jury found, solicited donations for a slain police officer\u2019s memorial and spent nearly $80,000 of it on plastic surgery, her daughter\u2019s wedding and rent. The jury deliberated for less than two hours, including a lunch break, before finding Fiore guilty on seven charges brought by the Department of Justice. Weeks before she was to be sentenced last year, Trump granted Fiore \u201ca…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}