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The numbers
Every president uses the pardon power. In the 80 years since 1945, 14 presidents issued more than 9,000 pardons and 6,500 commutations combined. Harry Truman issued the most at 1,913 across nearly eight years in office.
Trump passed 1,600 in his first 16 months back. That would be unremarkable if the pardons followed the normal process. They did not.
Of roughly 1,600 people who received clemency in Trump’s second term, only 10 had filed petitions through the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Career officials at DOJ recommended almost none of them. The standard review process that every modern president relied on was skipped entirely.
“No president has started a term with so many pardons that violate long-standing policies and norms.”
Who got pardoned
The pattern becomes clear when you look at the names.
| Who | What they did | When pardoned |
|---|---|---|
| ~1,500 Jan. 6 defendants | Assaulted police, breached the Capitol, conspired to obstruct Congress | Jan. 20, 2025 |
| Stewart Rhodes (Oath Keepers leader) | Convicted of seditious conspiracy for planning the Capitol attack | Jan. 20, 2025 (commuted) |
| Ross Ulbricht | Ran the Silk Road dark web drug marketplace; serving life sentence | Jan. 21, 2025 |
| Rod Blagojevich | Convicted of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat | Full pardon, 2025 |
| Michael Grimm (former Rep.) | Convicted of tax fraud while in Congress | May 2025 |
| Glen Casada (TN House Speaker) | Convicted of bribery while leading the state legislature | Nov. 7, 2025 |
| Henry Cuellar (Rep., TX-28) | Indicted for bribery and conspiracy involving foreign government | Dec. 2025 |
| George Santos (former Rep.) | Pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft; stole from donors and family | Oct. 2025 (commuted) |
| Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell + 74 others | Named in the fake electors plot to overturn the 2020 election | Nov. 9, 2025 |
| Wanda Vazquez (former PR governor) | Charged with bribery | Jan. 2026 |
CREW counts at least 20 corrupt politicians pardoned so far. An NBC News analysis of the first 88 individual pardons found that more than half went to wealthy people convicted of white-collar crimes like fraud and money laundering.
The pattern
Past presidents have issued controversial pardons. Clinton pardoned financier Marc Rich. George H.W. Bush pardoned six Iran-Contra officials. Biden pardoned his son Hunter. Those were isolated decisions, usually made in a president’s final days.
What makes this different is the system behind it. Trump’s pardons share three features that previous presidents’ did not.
They reward personal loyalty. The Jan. 6 defendants fought for Trump. The fake electors schemed for Trump. The corrupt politicians either supported Trump or belong to his party. Loyalty to the president is the common thread, not innocence or rehabilitation.
They bypass the process designed to prevent abuse. The Office of the Pardon Attorney exists to review petitions, check facts, and recommend deserving cases. Trump’s administration appointed a “Pardon Czar” and routed decisions through political channels instead.
They dismantle accountability for public corruption. Trump’s DOJ gutted the Public Integrity Section from 40 attorneys down to two. Pardoning corrupt politicians while defunding the office that prosecutes them sends a single message: steal from the public and we will protect you.
The Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police both condemned the Jan. 6 pardons, saying they “send a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe.”
What you can do
- Contact your senators and representative. Tell them the pardon power needs guardrails. Use Resist Bot to send a message in under two minutes.
- Support the Campaign Legal Center’s legal challenge. CLC has filed formal complaints documenting pardon abuse and pushing for transparency.
- Follow the tracker. CREW maintains an updated list of Trump’s corrupt pardons with details on each case. Share it when people claim “every president does this.”
- Vote in 2026. Congressional candidates who pledge to support pardon reform need your vote. Primaries in many states begin this summer.
This brief is part of the Rule of Law and Executive Power series tracking how institutional safeguards are being weakened from the inside.