Who got out.
Who got them out.

Not a clemency grant. Two political operatives with prior convictions for a 2020 voter-suppression robocall scheme marketed pardon access.

Rapper Boosie Badazz told 60 Minutes he paid the brokers $600,000 up front to pursue a pardon that never came; CBS News reports he has filed an arbitration claim to recover half of it, $300,000, which he says the agreement promised back if no pardon came. The brokers asked $300,000 from wildlife-trafficking felon Ammon Covino. 60 Minutes reported some brokers charge up to $3 million.

Reuters identified 290 “influencers” who advocated 624 times in 197 successful second-term clemency bids, with intermediaries charging as much as $2 million per engagement.

Wohl told 60 Minutes there is nothing corrupt or improper about their work; 60 Minutes reports the pair refuse to refund Boosie, calling his contract invalid, and deny sending one of the texts it showed. Ed Martin, who ran the Justice Department’s pardon office until nine days before the broadcast, told 60 Minutes he had never seen a broker quid pro quo, saw no evidence of “magical brokers” and called such brokers snake-oil salesmen.

The Justice Department’s clemency list shows 23 pardons and 6 commutations dated September 3, 2026. Identified from reporting: John Dougherty (commutation; bribery and union embezzlement), Patrick “Tate” Adamiak (pardon; unregistered machine guns and destructive devices), Jeremy Kettler and Shane Cox (pardons; their 2016 federal firearms convictions in Kansas, after they relied on the state’s 2013 Second Amendment Protection Act, as the Kansas Reflector reported), and George Peterson (pardon; a firearms case).

The pardon czar announced thirty grants and named Emory Jones, a Roc Nation executive and longtime Jay-Z associate. The Justice Department lists Jones’s pardon separately, dated September 8, 2026, five days after the other 29; together they account for the thirty announced. Former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer wrote on September 8 that she could identify only 11 of the 30 at the time. The Adamiak pardon was celebrated by the NRA.

The Ledger ran all thirty names against FEC contribution records for the 2024 and 2026 cycles. Twenty-seven have no filing of $2,500 or more; the three name-only matches could not be tied to the recipients and are not treated as links. The Ledger does not publish details of donors who merely share a recipient’s name.

The Justice Department list shows Jones was pardoned for conspiracy to distribute cocaine hydrochloride and cocaine base in the District of Maryland; it gives his sentencing date as October 15, 2000, and his sentence as 151 months’ imprisonment (as amended). The DOJ list is the primary record of all thirty grants.

White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, announcing the grants in a September 4 post on X, wrote that September 3 was “a powerful day for second chances” and called the 30 “deserving individuals” whose cases her team had reviewed; she said Jones came home determined to build a different life.

Convicted at trial in 2021 of bribing a Philadelphia City Council member and at a second trial in 2023 of embezzling nearly $600,000 from IBEW Local 98, the electricians’ union he ran for almost three decades; sentenced to six years.

No payment, lobbyist or Trump connection is documented; Dougherty was a Democratic power broker in Pennsylvania. The Inquirer reports that his lawyer said the commutation came after he had been in regular communication with White House staff about his wife’s severe, long-standing health problems, and that a White House official said those circumstances figured into Trump’s decision, particularly because her father, her primary caretaker, had died the year before.

He served less than two years and was released from the Lewisburg penitentiary on September 4. The Inquirer reports the commutation also relieves about $1.6 million in restitution, with no monitoring or house arrest.

Dougherty’s lawyer announced the grant and cited his wife’s health.

Not a grant. A summary entry for the reviews that measure the whole second-term clemency record.

Reuters found 96 percent of second-term clemency grants went to people who did not meet longstanding Justice Department guidelines, identified 290 advocates who intervened 624 times in 197 successful bids, and reported intermediary fees of up to $2 million. NBC News reported in May 2025 that two people knew of a client’s offer of $5 million to lobbying firms to help get a case to Trump.

House Judiciary Democrats estimated in June 2025 that the pardons could deprive victims and taxpayers of about $1.3 billion in restitution and fines, including amounts prosecutors had sought but courts had not yet ordered, and published a fuller staff report in August 2026. California’s governor later cited nearly $2 billion in lost victim repayment and taxpayer recovery.

Reuters reported in June 2026 that more than 1,700 people had received clemency since January 2025.

The White House told Reuters that the constitutional authority to issue pardons rests solely with the president, that it has a rigorous pardon review process, and that “anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money.” The Justice Department said there has been no departure from its long-standing process, and both have denied any impropriety (Reuters). Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said Trump was most interested in pardoning people “overprosecuted by a weaponized DOJ” (NBC News).

Insider trading conviction (2023) tied to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger and a Navigant acquisition; sentenced to 22 months.

The proclamation cited the “advice and recommendation” of more than 50 current and former members of Congress. Former Republican members argued Buyer was targeted for serving as a House prosecutor in the 1998 Clinton impeachment. No payment is documented.

The June 4 proclamation gave a full, complete and unconditional pardon and called Buyer’s career as an Army judge advocate general and a member of Congress “distinguished and highly productive,” The Hill reported.

Buyer maintained his innocence in a statement to The Associated Press, saying the pardon “corrects a politically motivated prosecution,” The Hill reported.

Joe Klecko (perjury), Nate Newton (drug trafficking), Jamal Lewis (using a phone to arrange a drug deal), Travis Henry (cocaine conspiracy) and, posthumously, Billy Cannon (1983 counterfeiting).

Announced by pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, who said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones personally delivered the news to Newton. Newsweek reported in 2020 that Jones had been a vocal supporter of Trump over players kneeling during the national anthem in 2017. No payment is documented.

The Justice Department list gives sentencing dates from 1993 (Klecko) to 2009 (Henry); The Hill dates Cannon’s counterfeiting to 1983. The Justice Department list dates the grants February 12, 2026, four days after Super Bowl LX, which ESPN reports was played February 8.

Newton thanked Trump in a February 13 post on X, WFAA reported; the cited reports include no statement from Klecko or the other pardoned players. NPR reported that pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson thanked Trump for his “continued commitment to second chances” and that the White House did not return a request for comment on why Trump pardoned the players.

Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banker, was charged with bribing then-Governor Vázquez of Puerto Rico with $300,000 in campaign contributions to remove a regulator investigating his bank; Vázquez was charged with accepting them. As the case neared trial in 2025, the Justice Department agreed to dismiss the most serious charges, and in August 2025 both, with co-defendant Mark Rossini, pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanor campaign-finance charges, a deal the presiding judge likened to “a slap on the wrist.”

Campaign Legal Center reports that Herrera Velutini’s 25-year-old daughter, whose only prior donation was $20, gave $3.5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC before the pardon. He was represented by former Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, who hired the Trump-tied firm Ballard Partners on behalf of the bank.

The pardons came months after the August 2025 guilty pleas; CBS News reported that Rossini was pardoned as well. The Justice Department’s clemency list dates the pardons January 15, 2026, and lists amended pardons for all three on January 20, 2026, for contribution by a foreign national. Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint arguing the daughter was not the true source of the money; that is an allegation, not a finding.

FEC filings show MAGA Inc. received $2.5 million on December 31, 2024 and $1 million on July 22, 2025 from a donor filed as Isabela Herrera, listed as a financial consultant in Florida and New York, matching the $3.5 million Campaign Legal Center attributes to the daughter.

Vázquez told reporters after her 2022 arrest that she was innocent, NPR reported; a White House official told CBS News her pardon materials say there was never a quid pro quo and her prosecution was politically motivated. A White House official told CBS News the donations had nothing to do with the pardon. Herrera Velutini’s lawyer, Chris Kise, told CBS News his client is grateful for the pardon; the cited reports do not include a statement from Herrera Velutini on the donation.

Charged in an indictment unsealed in May 2024 with bribery and conspiracy, alleging about $600,000 from an oil company owned by Azerbaijan’s government and a Mexican bank.

No payment or donation is documented in the cited sources. Trump, pardoning a Democrat, said Cuellar had been targeted by a “weaponized” Justice Department for opposing open borders.

The pardon ended the prosecution before trial. Cuellar was running for re-election at the time.

Cuellar thanked Trump and said the decision “clears the air.”

Former president of Honduras; convicted in 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related firearms offenses; sentenced to 45 years.

Political. Trump announced the pardon while endorsing Nasry Asfura, the presidential candidate of Hernández’s National Party, days before Honduras voted. No payment is documented in the cited sources.

Granted December 1, 2025; Hernández was released the same day. Trump called the case a “Biden horrible witch hunt.” Senators of both parties, including Republican Bill Cassidy (quoted by CNN) and Democrat Dick Durbin (in a Senate floor speech), questioned the pardon against the administration’s stated drug-enforcement goals; the Congressional Research Service noted that some members of Congress argue it calls those goals into question.

Hernández thanked Trump and maintained his innocence.

Nursing-home chain tax fraud.

The compiled clemency record reports that lobbyists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl accepted $960,000 to lobby for a pardon for Schwartz, and that Schwartz, unhappy with their efforts, then hired lobbyist Josh Nass, who was later charged with extortion; prosecutors allege Nass sought $500,000 he said Schwartz owed him for pardon work. 60 Minutes reported that a nursing-home owner convicted of tax fraud paid pardon brokers nearly $1 million.

The Justice Department list shows a sentence of 36 months’ imprisonment, a $100,000 fine and $5,000,000 restitution. ProPublica reported that Schwartz paid the $5 million restitution the judge ordered, and that the pardon wiped away his federal prison sentence. The extortion charge against Nass is an allegation; Schwartz is not accused in that case, and the compiled record describes Schwartz and his son as the targets of the alleged scheme.

Schwartz’s attorney, Kevin Marino, said the pardon was “well deserved in the circumstances of this case,” Patch reported in November 2025; in March 2026 Marino told ProPublica he and Schwartz had no comment.

Federal exposure related to the 2020 alternate-elector effort; recipients included Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.

Trump’s own lawyers, aides and allies. No payment is documented.

A federal pardon does not affect state prosecutions; several recipients faced state cases in Georgia, Arizona and elsewhere.

Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman said Giuliani “never sought a pardon but is deeply grateful for President Trump’s decision” and that the action highlights “the years of unjust attacks” against him and others, according to The Guardian. The proclamation posted by the Justice Department says it “ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election.” The White House did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment. The cited reports include no response from the other recipients.

Pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program at Binance; served four months.

Binance retained lobbyist Ches McDowell of Checkmate Government Relations, a longtime friend of Donald Trump Jr. Bloomberg reported that Binance paid the firm $450,000 for one month’s work lobbying the White House and the Treasury Department on financial policy issues and “executive relief.” Separately, Abu Dhabi fund MGX paid a $2 billion investment into Binance using USD1, the stablecoin issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial.

The pardon followed months of lobbying. Congressional Democrats opened an inquiry into pay-to-play questions around pardon recipients including Zhao.

Zhao’s lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillén, denied any connection between Binance’s business with the Trump family and the pardon, telling the AP that “any claim of a quid pro quo by Binance or CZ, or preferential financial treatment by Binance, is a clear misstatement of the public record.” The White House said Zhao had been unfairly punished in the Biden administration’s “war on crypto.”

Wire fraud and aggravated identity theft; sentenced to 87 months after admitting he deceived donors and used the identities of 11 people, including relatives, to make campaign donations.

No payment or donation is documented in the cited sources. The commutation followed public appeals from Santos himself and a letter from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene urging it, the Associated Press reported. Trump’s announcement, quoted by NPR, said Santos had the “Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”

Santos was released the same evening after serving roughly three months. Trump called him “somewhat of a rogue” and, CBS New York reported, wrote that “George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated.”

In an X post the day after his release, Santos thanked Trump for “his kindness, his humanity and his generosity,” CBS New York reported.

Bank fraud and tax evasion convictions (2022); restitution of $17.3 million (Todd) and $4.7 million (Julie) per the Justice Department’s clemency list.

Daughter Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention and campaigned for Trump. NBC News reported that Brett Tolman, a former federal prosecutor who advised the White House on pardons, helped the Chrisleys.

ABC News reported on May 28, 2025, citing a source familiar with the situation, that both had been released from Bureau of Prisons custody after the pardons were signed that day. NBC News cited Savannah Chrisley’s Republican National Convention speech, in which she suggested her parents were targeted for being conservative, as an example of pardon seekers’ relatives appearing in “MAGA-friendly spaces.”

Savannah Chrisley and her brother Chase publicly thanked Trump, ABC News reported. Savannah Chrisley called it a “misconception” that she had paid for a pardon for her parents, saying she “begged for meetings,” NBC News reported; Tolman did not respond to NBC’s request for comment.

Tax fraud; the former Republican congressman admitted concealing about $1 million in restaurant income.

Former GOP member of Congress and Newsmax commentator. No payment is documented.

Full pardon.

In a statement reported by the Brooklyn Eagle, Grimm said he was “grateful beyond words to President Trump for restoring my good name” and that “the Obama Justice Department was weaponized against me.” He told Newsmax he was “over the moon ecstatic.”

Co-founder of Chicago’s Gangster Disciples; six federal life sentences from a 1997 conviction for running the gang from prison.

A long-running celebrity and criminal-justice-reform campaign. No payment is documented in the cited sources.

The federal sentences were commuted to time served, but Hoover was then transferred from federal to Illinois custody, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in May 2026. He is serving a 200-year state sentence for a 1973 murder, which a president cannot commute.

Hoover’s lawyers welcomed the commutation and said they would seek state relief.

Bribery and honest-services fraud; the Culpeper County, Virginia sheriff accepted $75,000 in bribes in exchange for auxiliary deputy badges.

Pardon office director Ed Martin marked the grant with a “No MAGA Left Behind” post. No payment to Trump or allies is documented.

Trump announced the pardon on May 26, 2025, the day before Jenkins was due to report to begin a ten-year prison sentence, CNN reported. The Justice Department’s clemency list dates the grant May 27, 2025.

Jenkins told DC News Now he “thanks God and President Trump” and Ed Martin for the pardon. His lawyers’ sentencing memo had said he “adamantly maintains his innocence,” NBC News reported.

False labor-union reports; the union president accepted about $315,000 in unreported gifts from an advertising vendor.

No political tie or payment is documented in the cited sources.

Pardoned before sentencing.

The cited reports do not include a statement from Callahan.

Employment-tax crimes; sentenced to 18 months and $4.4 million restitution.

His mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a MAGA Inc. fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago priced at $1 million per person about three weeks before the pardon. Walczak’s pardon application cited her fundraising for Trump and other Republicans.

The New York Times, as summarized by The Hill and Rolling Stone, reported the dinner and the timing. Walczak had pleaded guilty in November 2024 to not paying employment taxes and not filing his individual income tax returns, The Hill reported, citing the Justice Department. The Justice Department said his conduct caused a total tax loss to the IRS of $10,912,334.80.

FEC filings show a $1,000,000 contribution to MAGA Inc. from Elizabeth Fago of Juno Beach, Florida, dated April 3, 2025, twenty days before the pardon.

The pardon spared him both the prison sentence and the restitution obligation, The Hill reported.

The cited reports do not include a response from Walczak. A White House official told The New York Times that Walczak was “targeted by the Biden administration over his family’s conservative politics,” Rolling Stone reported. The Daily Beast reported in August 2025 that a White House official told the Times the pardon was inspired by Fago’s plea as a mother, not by her donation.

Wire fraud; convicted of diverting about $70,000 raised for a police memorial to personal use.

Nevada Republican official whom AP described as a “loyal Trump supporter.” Pardoned while awaiting sentencing. No payment is documented.

The pardon ended the case before sentencing.

In a statement, Fiore called the prosecution “politically driven,” News 3 Las Vegas reported.

Securities-fraud conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft; sentenced to 116 months with about $96 million in restitution and forfeiture.

Variety reported that the case was handled by the office of Trump’s newly appointed pardon czar, Alice Marie Johnson. No payment or donation is documented in the cited sources.

Granted hours before Watson was due to surrender to prison. The commutation also relieved the $96 million restitution and forfeiture, per CNBC.

In a statement reported by Variety, Watson thanked Trump for “correcting this grave injustice” and said his prosecution was driven by “a jealous competitor at a rival media company.”

Securities and investment-adviser fraud in multiple schemes, including manipulating the market for NYSE-listed Gerova Financial Group and the tribal-bond fraud that also involved Devon Archer; sentenced in September 2020 to 189 months.

Former Hunter Biden business associate who testified in the 2024 House impeachment inquiry into the Biden family; a Trump administration official told Fox News Digital he was the “fall guy” for Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. No payment is documented.

Commuted to time served.

Galanis thanked Trump for commuting his sentence and praised him for understanding “the law better than any lawyer,” the Washington Examiner reported.

Securities and wire fraud (Nikola); sentenced to four years; prosecutors sought roughly $660 million in shareholder restitution plus about $15 million to a separate victim.

Milton and his wife gave more than $1.8 million to committees supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign, including $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October 2024 and $750,000 to the Make America Healthy Again Alliance. His trial lawyer was Brad Bondi, brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The pardon was issued before the court finished the restitution process and remitted any restitution ordered. Democratic Judiciary Committee staff count the Milton pardon among grants that erased victim repayment.

FEC filings under Milton’s name show $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee on October 10, 2024, of which the Republican National Committee reports about $408,000 as its joint-fundraising share, and $750,000 to the MAHA Alliance on September 18, 2024. On September 24, 2025, a $100,000 contribution under his name went to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC backing Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign in Texas, according to the PAC’s FEC filings.

Milton, who had denied wrongdoing and was appealing his conviction, announced the pardon, calling it a “pardon of innocence” and saying it was about “every American who has been railroaded by the government.” Trump told reporters Milton had been unfairly prosecuted, was “highly recommended” and “did nothing wrong,” and said he did not know him. A person close to the situation told the Financial Times that Brad Bondi had not been involved in the pardon. Brad Bondi declined to comment.

Bank Secrecy Act violations by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, Samuel Reed and Gregory Dwyer; the parent company had a $100 million fine due the same week.

No lobbyist or donation is documented in the cited sources. The grants came the same day as the Milton pardon, according to the Justice Department list.

Four individual pardons and a corporate pardon for HDR Global Trading Limited.

Hayes wrote “Thank you POTUS” in a post on X, CNBC reported; co-founder Ben Delo said in a statement that the Justice Department “wrongfully targeted BitMEX and its co-founders” and called the pardon “a vindication.” The report quotes no response from Reed or Dwyer.

Securities fraud involving tribal bonds; $43.4 million restitution.

Former business partner of Hunter Biden who, CBS News reported, testified before Congress in a July 2023 interview with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. No payment is documented.

Full pardon; restitution obligation remitted per the compiled record.

Archer thanked Trump and said he was “the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort,” in a statement to the New York Post, Fox News reported.

Campaign-finance violations; the former Tennessee Republican state senator funneled state campaign money into a 2016 congressional bid.

Republican former legislator. No payment is documented.

Pardoned two weeks into a 21-month prison sentence, AP reported. He had been ordered to report to a federal prison camp in Kentucky on February 24, 2025.

Kelsey initially called the prosecution a witch hunt and blamed the Biden administration. After the pardon he said Trump had saved him from the “weaponized Biden DOJ,” AP reported.

Wire fraud and attempted extortion as Illinois governor, including the attempted sale of a Senate seat.

Sentence already commuted by Trump in 2020. A former Celebrity Apprentice contestant; no payment is documented.

Full pardon five years after the commutation; criticized by Senator Dick Durbin and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.

Blagojevich has praised Trump and described his own prosecution as political.

Silk Road dark-web marketplace; serving two life sentences plus 40 years.

A campaign pledge made to the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. No payment is documented; the pardon was sought by cryptocurrency and libertarian advocates.

Full and unconditional pardon on the second day of the term.

Ulbricht thanked Trump in a video posted to X, calling him “a man of his word,” and his family thanked him in a statement on FreeRoss.org, Fox News reported.

Offenses related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, from misdemeanor trespass to seditious conspiracy.

Political allies and supporters. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio (22-year sentence) received a full pardon, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes (18 years) had his sentence commuted. No payment is documented.

Issued on inauguration day, covering nearly everyone charged. Senate Judiciary Democrats later wrote to the attorney general about the grants.

The proclamation granting the clemency said it “ends a grave national injustice” and “begins a process of national reconciliation.”