Which high-profile individuals received pardons from Donald Trump?
Executive summary
Donald Trump has used the presidential pardon power aggressively across both terms, issuing individual pardons and mass clemencies that include well-known political allies, former officials, donors’ associates, and hundreds linked to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and official records show a pattern: high-profile recipients include Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mark Meadows, former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, banker Julio Herrera Velutini and his co-defendant Mark Rossini, and a raft of January 6 defendants, with totals that dwarf typical modern presidencies [1] [4] [5] [2] [3].
1. Major political allies and legal advisers pardoned
Among the most conspicuous names are former Trump lawyers and allies who were involved in post-2020 litigation and efforts to overturn the election: Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were publicly identified as recipients of pardons tied to the events surrounding the 2020 election and January 6, 2021 [1] [6].
2. Mass pardons for January 6 defendants
Trump issued sweeping pardons that encompassed roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack, a move explicitly documented in news reporting and DOJ summaries and criticized by judges and law enforcement organizations [2] [3]. The Justice Department notices and media coverage frame these as blanket clemencies for many who had been prosecuted for offenses related to the events at or near the Capitol [6] [3].
3. Elected officials and public‑corruption cases
The president has pardoned multiple elected officials convicted of corruption and related offenses, a trend noted by watchdog groups and the media; Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington counted scores of political figures who benefited, and PBS and Newsweek pointed to a “historic” number of pardoned public officials, including recent pardons of members of Congress such as Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife [7] [8] [2]. Observers emphasize that crimes involving public trust are rarely pardoned in ordinary practice, making these choices notable [8].
4. Business figures, fraud convictions, and donor connections
Investigations and coverage show a concentration of pardons for white‑collar crimes—wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud and related offenses—and have flagged donor links in some cases: banker Julio Herrera Velutini and co-defendant Mark Rossini were pardoned after wire-fraud convictions, and reporters connected large donations from Herrera’s daughter to pro‑Trump entities to those clemency decisions [5] [4]. State officials and watchdogs have publicly suggested that these pardons disproportionately favored well‑connected business figures [5] [9].
5. Continuity from first term and administrative changes
Trump’s use of clemency is an extension and amplification of his earlier approach: in his first term he granted hundreds of grants and commuted sentences for selected high‑profile individuals, often bypassing the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and official tallies show a far higher volume than many recent presidents [10] [11]. The second‑term surge has included both mass actions and the firing and replacement of pardon‑office leadership, moves that critics say institutionalized a political clemency agenda [3].
6. Competing narratives and controversies
Supporters frame these pardons as corrective measures against politicized prosecutions and as clemency for loyalists; critics call them normalization of corruption and the sale of influence, pointing to patterns of donor ties and friend‑of‑the‑president recipients and to watchdog counts of pardoned corrupt officials [12] [13] [7]. Government releases, investigative reporting and watchdog organizations provide the core factual record, while editorial accounts and advocacy groups supply interpretation and criticism—both are necessary to understand who was pardoned and why [6] [4] [14].