On Wednesday, President Donald Trump officially pardoned reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were convicted of fraud by his first administration's Department of Justice. But the MAGA faithful wants him to go even further.
The Guardian reported recently that Trump's loyal base of supporters is pushing for him to grant full clemency to far-right political allies, and pressure for governors to pardon others who have been convicted of state-level crimes. And Ed Martin — the pardon attorney for Trump's second-term DOJ — is reportedly driven by a "no MAGA left behind" policy that's focused on freeing far-right activists.
Martin is now reviewing the commutation Trump granted to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in spearheading some of the worst violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. While Rhodes had his sentence commuted, Trump has not yet granted him a pardon.
While governors are the only officials capable of pardoning state-level crimes, MAGA is reportedly now pushing for Trump to use his bully pulpit to call for the pardon of former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. Trump's base also wants him to push for clemency for Tina Peters, who was an elections official in Colorado now serving a nine-year prison sentence for allowing a man affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to access Mesa County's election systems.
Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer — who was fired for refusing to restore actor Mel Gibson his access to firearms – has condemned the second Trump administration's pardon process, which reportedly involves getting access to someone close to Trump and making a pitch on how the convicted felon was the victim of a politically motivated prosecution. She said that process is "not at all how pardons normally work."
“In the current administration, there is no path forward that we know of right now for ordinary people to be considered for clemency,” Oyer told PBS NewsHour. “And the other thing that’s really striking and shocking is that the president is granting clemency to individuals who owe tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution and fines and other financial penalties. And it’s never been done by any other president.”