What Happened
Former Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), who represented Indiana’s 4th and 5th congressional districts from 1993 to 2011, received a full, unconditional pardon from President Trump on June 5, 2026.
Buyer was convicted in March 2023 on four counts of securities fraud by a federal jury in the Southern District of New York. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison, ordered to forfeit $354,027 in illegal profits, and fined $10,000.
What He Did
After leaving Congress, Buyer worked as a consultant and lobbyist. He committed insider trading in two separate schemes.
T-Mobile/Sprint merger. T-Mobile executives told Buyer about their planned $26.5 billion merger with Sprint and directed him to keep the information confidential. Buyer bought Sprint shares across multiple brokerage accounts before the merger was publicly announced in April 2018. He made more than $126,000 on those trades.
Navigant acquisition. Buyer learned that his client Guidehouse intended to acquire the management consulting firm Navigant. He purchased more than $1 million in Navigant stock and sold the shares for a $227,000 profit the day the acquisition was announced.
The Pardon
Trump cited Buyer’s military service as a judge advocate general in the Army. The pardon was supported by more than 40 former Republican congressional members and five current House Republicans, including Tom Cole (OK), Ken Calvert (CA), and Pete Sessions (TX).
Buyer called the conviction “politically motivated” and said he was “a political prisoner.” The federal jury that convicted him reviewed the evidence and found him guilty on all four counts.
$354,027 in illegal profits forfeited. 22-month sentence. Four guilty verdicts. Full pardon.
The Pattern
Buyer is at least the 16th corrupt politician pardoned by Trump, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Trump has now issued more than 1,600 pardons in 16 months. The majority went to January 6 defendants. Others went to political allies convicted of fraud, bribery, and obstruction.
Buyer served as a House manager in President Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial. He later served on Trump’s 2016 transition team.
For the full pattern of pardons and what they mean for accountability, see our pardons pattern analysis.
What You Can Do Now
- Contact your senators and ask them to support legislation requiring transparency in presidential pardons. The pardon power has no external check. Use Resistbot (text RESIST to 50409) to send a message.
- Contact your House representative and ask whether they supported this pardon. Five current House members backed it. Ask yours where they stand on pardoning convicted insider traders.
- Follow CREW’s pardon tracker at citizensforethics.org to see which convicted politicians receive clemency and who supports them.