In his role as the 47th president of the United States (January 20, 2025 – present), Donald Trump granted executive clemency to more than 1,700 individuals as of June 11, 2026, all of whom were charged or convicted of federal criminal offenses. This included a blanket pardon of some 1,500 individuals associated with the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Many of Trump's pardons have gone to people who committed fraud against the government or investors. In many cases, Trump also removed the requirement that these individuals pay restitution and fines, costing their victims an estimated $1.3 billion. At least three individuals who had been convicted in white-collar fraud cases and who were granted executive clemency also had their pending United States Securities and Exchange Commission civil enforcement actions dropped as a result. Unique among modern U.S. presidents, Trump also issued pardons to corporations, erasing $200 million in financial penalties lodged against those companies.
A June 2026 Reuters review of clemency decisions by the second Trump administration found that 96% of clemency grants failed to meet longstanding Department of Justice guidelines for such requests; a large number of pardons were granted to people who used Trump allies to lobby for their cause; and there was evidence of donations to Trump or payments to Trump allies to help achieve the clemency. The nature of the clemency process under the second Trump administration has been controversial among legal experts, ethics experts, and the victims of the pardoned offenders, and a claim many have been "quid pro quo".
Background
The U.S. president's power of clemency arises from Article II of the United States Constitution. Clemency "may take several forms, including pardon, commutation of sentence, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve", with the two most commonly used forms being a pardon or commutation. A pardon is an official forgiveness for an acknowledged crime. Once a pardon is issued, all further punishment for the crime is waived. The president can only grant pardons for federal offenses. When the president commutes a sentence, it reduces the severity of a sentence without voiding the conviction itself; for example, a commutation may reduce or eliminate a prison term, while leaving other punishments intact. The power of clemency is "one of the most unlimited powers bestowed on the president by the Constitution."
Trump's second-term use of executive clemency Role of the Office of the Pardon Attorney Trump frequently bypassed the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and on March 7, 2025, fired its leader, Department of Justice career attorney Liz Oyer, and installed political loyalist Ed Martin in the role. Ed Martin described the rationale for granting pardons as "No MAGA left behind". In April 2025, Oyer testified to the Senate and accused the Justice Department of "ongoing corruption" and that "the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of justice".. On February 2, 2026, it was reported that Martin was considering leaving the Justice Department following conflicts with Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General, though he remained in the role. Following Blanche's confirmation as Attorney General, Trump announced on August 21, 2026, that Martin was leaving the Justice Department. By September of 2026, CBS News reported, the vast majority of successful clemency cases originated outside of the traditional Office of the Pardon Attorney process, but instead came about as a result of personal appeals to the White House.
Creation of 'Pardon Czar' position On February 20, 2025, Trump announced the creation of a new position to recommend executive clemency candidates, and named Alice Marie Johnson to the role. Johnson, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for nonviolent drug offenses, received a sentence commutation and later a full pardon in Trump's first term, after Kim Kardashian intervened on her behalf.
Role of lobbyists In addition to pursuing pardons through the Office of Pardon Attorney, the Pardon Czar, and the White House Counsel's Office, some wealthy pardon-seekers have hired politically-connected lobbyists to present their cases directly to Trump, with many echoing claims of political prosecution to win Trump's support. Reflecting concerns about the optics of the pardon process, there have been sporadic attempts by White House staffers to limit access to Trump by advocates for pardon-seekers.
Lobbyists have told the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets that fees of $1M are standard. Some would-be pardon recipients have offered success fees of $6M for a successful application. NBC News reported that former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman and Washington attorney Adam Katz have played key roles in securing clemency for their clients. Similarly, lobbyist Ches McDowell and Checkpoint Government Systems received $1.3M for obtaining clemency for Changpeng Zhao. Lobbyists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl accepted $300,000 to lobby for a pardon for fugitive crypto figure Andean Medjedovic and $960,000 to lobby for a federal pardon on behalf of Joseph Schwartz, convicted for nursing home fraud in April 2025. It was later reported that Schwartz was unhappy with their efforts and hired politically-connected attorney and lobbyist Josh Nass to pursue clemency. Schwartz was granted clemency on November 14, 2025. Nass was later charged with extortion in an apparent connection to the Schwartz pardon; federal prosecutors alleged that Nass hired a convicted racketeer to assault or kidnap Schwartz's son in order to get $500,000 Nass said Schwartz owed him for his pardon work. On July 13, 2026, NOTUS reported that Burkman and Wohl were facing legal action from a former client Boosie Badazz, who alleged that the two took $600,000 to lobby for a promised pardon that never materialized. The lobbying contract specified a $300,000 refund if the effort failed, but Burkman has said the two are "effectively bankrupt."
Legal boundaries of the pardons The scope of the Trump pardons became a contentious legal issue. Several people who were under investigation in the January 6 Capitol assault were charged in separate cases that came about as a result of those investigations. These separate cases included gun charges, possession of child pornography, and threatening FBI agents.
With the mass pardon of the January 6 Capitol assault participants, lawyers for some of those defendants argued that the mass pardons applied to those charges as well, and in several of the cases the Department of Justice attorneys concurred. Some courts accepted this reasoning, but many were skeptical. On November 14, 2025, Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announced additional pardons for two of the people charged in the separate cases.
After the 2025 arrest of Brian Cole Jr. in the pipe bomb attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee the night before January 6, former DOJ prosecutor Ankush Khardori argued that the broad pardon language may apply to Cole, potentially upending prosecution of Cole. In March 2026, Cole's lawyers made a motion making that exact argument in court. A federal judge later ruled that the pardon did not apply to the case.
Pardons of companies Trump was the first president in modern American history to issue pardons for businesses, and by July 2026 had issued nine and wiped out $200 million in penalties, some of which was destined for victims of wrongdoing. According to Bloomberg, White House officials "saw precedent in King Charles II pardoning a company more than 300 years ago", although the White House denied this and said the Constitution said nothing about the pardon being limited to people.
Bloomberg highlighted the case of HDR Global Trading, which owned crypto platform BitMEX and was the first company pardoned instead of a natural person. On January 15, 2025, BitMEX was fined $100 million for violating anti-money laundering laws after pleading guilty in July 2024. That month, the exchange launched a swap listing tied to the $TRUMP memecoin and its founder penned an essay which Bloomberg described as "framing the president's embrace of meme coins as a move toward bolstering political accountability". On March 27, 2025, Trump signed pardons for four BitMEX executives and pardoned the company the same week the $100 million fine was due.
Fake electors plot pardons On November 10, 2025, Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announced on social media that 77 people alleged to have been involved in the 2020 Trump fake electors plot had been pardoned via proclamation. None of the listed people were facing federal charges at the time, and the proclamation, known as Proclamation 10989, does not affect state charges.
Building on the scope questions related to the January 6 Capitol assault mass pardon, Proclamation 10989 explicitly states that the clemency action applies to "all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any State or State official, in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election, as well for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election" and that it is not limited to the 77 people listed by Martin. The proclamation explicitly disallows Trump as a pardon beneficiary, but otherwise delegates questions about to whom it applies to and what activities it covers to the Department of Justice.
Attorneys for a man accused of voter fraud in the 2020 election have argued that the pardon applies to him, even though he is not on the proclamation list. Prosecutors have argued against this interpretation, saying that it is up to the Department of Justice to determine who is eligible for inclusion in the pardon.
Former NFL player pardons Shortly after the 2026 Super Bowl, 'Pardon Czar' Alice Marie Johnson announced pardons for five former professional football athletes: Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon. All had served time and been released after having been convicted on charges ranging from drug dealing to fraud to counterfeiting more than a decade ago.
U.S. semiquincentennial pardons In early summer 2026, numerous publications reported that Trump was considering marking the United States Semiquincentennial by issuing 250 pardons. In a scaled-down announcement on July 3 2026, Trump pardoned a number people and businesses convicted of Clean Air Act violations, as well as a GOP donor.
Delayed announcement of September 3, 2026 pardons Starting in early September 2026, rumors began circulating that one or more people had been granted clemency, though no official press releases had been issued and the Office of the Pardon Attorney website had not been updated with the clemency documents. A day later, Pardon Czar Alice Johnson announced on social media that 30 people had been granted clemency, but named only four of them. After more questions from the press, the list of 30 recipients was released by the Department of Justice the following week. Former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer has expressed concern about the delayed announcements and that this may indicate the existence of other, publicly unknown, clemency actions.
Major beneficiaries