The president of the United States has pardoned his former personal lawyer, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of supporting the Republican’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, according to a Justice Department official.
Ed Martin, the government’s pardon lawyer, posted on social media a signed proclamation of the “full, complete and unconditional” pardon, which also names conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. The proclamation explicitly says the pardon does not apply to Trump.
Specifically, these friends of the president were accused in Georgia of trying to subvert Trump’s electoral defeat in 2020.
Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes, and none of the allies have been charged in federal cases. But the move underscores Trump’s efforts to build on the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The White House has not made any statements at this time in this regard.
Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as false electors for Trump in 2020 and who were accused in state cases of presenting false certificates confirming they were legitimate electors despite Biden’s victory in those states.
The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those involved in the 2020 election plans as “a grave national injustice perpetrated against the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation.”
Also last week, the president granted clemency to a retired New York City police officer who was convicted in 2023 of harassing a New Jersey family on behalf of the Chinese government. He also pardoned former Major League Baseball (MLB) star Darryl Strawberry for a 1995 tax evasion charge.
