No president in American history has used–and abused–the constitutional clemency power quite like Donald Trump. It’s not just that he’s used his authority to pardon people who probably shouldn’t be pardoned; other presidents have done that, although in smaller quantities.
What’s unique about Trump’s abuses is the sheer number–and how brazenly self-interested they’ve been. Thus far in his second term, he’s used the constitutional pardon prerogative in support of his larger vision of a government that’s set up to help him make money, reward loyalty, and undermine his perceived political enemies.
For our final Top 10 Worst of 2025, we detail the most egregious of Trump’s abuses of the pardon and other clemency powers. They are atrocious–so much so that we cannot rule out even worse pardons ahead, such as of Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. Neither does Trump rule it out; when asked after the Supreme Court rejected her final appeal in October whether he would consider a pardon for her, Trump dodged the question by stating “I’d have to take a look at it.”
As the country reviews the Justice Department’s most recent Epstein files document release, more light might be shed upon the matter. Or not, if as it so far appears, material has been over with held. Thanks to you, we won’t have to take the DOJ’s word for it.
In the meantime, let’s have a look back at Trump’s 10
worst pardons of 2025, followed by our usual round up of all the Contrarian
coverage of the week.
Capitol Clemency Catastrophe
We begin our putrid pardon-palooza on Day One of Trump,
when he granted
clemency to over 1,500
insurrectionists who stormed the capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021.
Among those pardoned for their crimes on the “day
of love,” as he puts it, were 608
people who were charged with violent crimes and approximately 174 who
were “charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily
injury to an officer.” Trump defended the
pardons on the grounds that “these people have already served a long period of
time” and that many sentences were “ridiculous and excessive.” Tell that to the
cops who were targeted.
Juan Orlando Hernández
Despite all his bluster about fighting drug trafficking
in Central and South America, Trump pardoned former
Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence
for pumping poison on a “cocaine superhighway” into our communities. Press
Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the
prosecution was the result of a “weaponized” Justice Department, which brought
the case because Hernández was “opposed to the values of the previous
administration.” But the case was pushed by
then-prosecutor Emil Bove, later Trump’s defense lawyer, senior DOJ official,
and now Third Circuit judge!
Ross Ulbricht
More drug hypocrisy: Ross Ulbricht, who operated
the Silk Road, a notorious underground online market used by drug
dealers, landed one
of the first pardons Trump signed. Ulbricht was sentenced to
life in prison for his role in facilitating the
flow of heroin and other illicit drugs into our communities. Trump defended the
pardon because Ulbricht was put in jail by “the same lunatics who were involved
in the modern day weaponization of the government against me.” Yet Trump
just declared that
illicit fentanyl is a “weapon of mass destruction.”
Changpen “CZ” Zhao
As we discussed last
week, CZ is one of Trump’s crypto cronies. That includes CZ’s crypto exchange
Binance using a Trump-supported table coin, USD1, to finance a
$2 billion transaction (potentially generating huge
revenue for the Trumps). CZ, who spent nearly four months in jail for
money laundering issues
at Binance, scored clemency
a few months after the USD1 deal. Binance announced that it would launch trading
of the USD1 stablecoin and another Trump-linked crypto product on its exchange
a week after Trump signed CZ’s pardon. When asked about the pardon, Trump said,
“I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and
just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the
Biden administration.” Sure.
Giuliani, Meadows, and the Election Co-Conspirators
Trump’s decision to issue pardons
for 77 people involved in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election results and
keep Trump in power was no surprise. His pardon attorney, Ed Martin, revealed
the clemencies by replying to his own May post on X in which he said,
“No MAGA Left Behind.” The only real shock here is that it took so long for
Trump to protect Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, and
company from future accountability (none
is facing federal charges). Just like the Jan. 6 mass pardons, this grant
of clemency was yet another attempt to re-write the history of the attempted
coup–and convey to future would-be plotters that they will not face
consequences if they try again.
Rep. Henry Cuellar
Trump suggested that his decision to pardon Rep. Henry
Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife for allegedly engaging in a bribery scheme
was mostly
about politics: namely, hoping
the congressman would switch parties or retire. But when Rep. Cuellar
refused to jump ship, Trump exploded in a Truth Social rant, accusing Cuellar
of “a
lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not
like.” For his part, Cuellar clapped back by paraphrasing
the words of his fellow Texan and former president Lyndon B. Johnson,
with Cuellar saying, “I’m an American, I’m a Texan, and I’m a Democrat, in that
order … and I think anybody that puts party before their country is doing a
disservice to their country.”
Todd and Julie Chrisley
It is possible that Trump saw some of himself in Todd
and Julie Chrisley, former millionaire stars of the reality show Chrisley
Knows Best, who received pardons after being convicted of fraud by an
Atlanta jury
in federal court in 2022? The pardon follows lobbying
from the Chrisleys’ daughter Savannah, including a prime-time appearance at
the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she argued that her parents were
the victims of (you guessed it) political
persecution. Trump’s
pardon also fully relieved the Chrisleys of the more than $22 million
they owed to victims of their tax fraud and tax evasion scheme. Not a
bad deal– except for the victims.
BitMEX Co-Founders–and BitMEX
Trump appears to have
made history in March when he used the pardon power to grant clemency
to a corporation: crypto exchange BitMEX. The exchange pleaded guilty to “wilfully”
failing to “establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money
laundering” program; Trump’s pardon coincided with a surge
of activity on the exchange. The grant also extended to the exchange’s
founders, Benjamin
Delo, Arthur Hayes, and Samuel Reed, and employee Gregory
Dwyer for their participation in similar schemes to flout U.S. laws.
For its part, the company celebrated the pardon, thanking the president and
boosting itself as “the
safest, most trusted, financially-stable, and professionally operated crypto
derivatives exchange.”
Scott Jenkins
Trump’s decision to pardon Scott Jenkins, an ardent MAGA
supporter who was convicted of bribery and honest services fraud for running a
“cash
for badges” scheme, is one of the best examples of Trump’s putrid pardon
philosophy. If you’re a MAGA official convicted of corruption offenses, you’re
pardon eligible. Jenkins “displayed
a shocking disregard for his ethical and legal responsibilities,” according
to prosecutor Zachary T. Lee (who was then Trump’s
acting U.S. Attorney before resigning in October). No matter. The day
before the
pardon was announced, Martin dropped his infamous “No MAGA left
behind” post on X.
Trump, as usual, defended the pardon because Jenkins “is
a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice”--even though it
was his DOJ that secured Jenkins’
10-year sentence.
Trevor Milton
Trevor Milton, convicted
of defrauding investors in his electric car startup in 2022, received a
pardon in March. Trump labeled Milton, who was represented at his trial by
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother, Brad Bondi, as yet another victim of
persecution: “the
thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a
gentleman named Donald Trump for a president.” He certainly did support
Trump and his agenda–to the
tune of at least $930,000 to the Trump campaign or Trump-aligned PACs and
$750,000 to the MAHA Alliance, a PAC designed to convince Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. supporters to vote for Trump in 2024. Milton
bombastically declared that the pardon is really about “every American who has
been railroaded by the government.”
Dishonorable mention: George Santos
Trump loves those who have made their support for him
clear. And few people have been better at that than George Santos, the
disgraced former congressman and conman whose sentence Trump commuted in
October. Santos was serving a seven-year sentence for wire fraud and
identity theft. The commutation also relieved him of his requirement to pay
more than $370,000
in restitution to his victims. Trump even called him “somewhat
of a ‘rogue’” who “lied
like hell”--but there are “many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t
forced to serve seven years in prison.” This commutation, despite not technically being
a pardon, makes the list as a dishonorable mention… .
-The
Contrarian and Norman
Eisen
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