{"id":69,"date":"2026-05-27T07:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=69"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:11:20","slug":"trumps-pardon-spree-is-doing-real-harm-to-real-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=69","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s pardon spree is doing real harm to real people"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It can be easy to think of President Donald Trump\u2019s abuses of power in a vacuum or as an academic exercise. Many of his most flagrant violations have been against the norms, laws and values we collectively call \u201cthe rule of law.\u201d Near the top of the list are the string of controversial pardons, commutations and other reversals of fortune that Trump has issued since returning to the White House in January.<\/p>\n

Read more Why this Florida \u2018grand conspiracy\u2019 investigation is ringing legal alarm bells<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s helpful then, if not exactly desirable, when Trump\u2019s actions have clear consequences that bring them from the abstract to painful reality. The Washington Post highlighted one such instance recently, focusing in on the case of Trevor Milton, a former CEO convicted of fraud in 2022. Trump pardoned Milton in March, erasing his conviction before the judge in his case could issue an order for restitution, the official term for compensation to victims for their losses. (As the Post notes, Milton \u201crepeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong and has been promoting a documentary proclaiming his innocence.\u201d)<\/p>\n

With the stroke of a pen, Trump had eliminated any chance for Milton\u2019s defrauded investors from receiving anything, let alone the $680 million that prosecutors argued should be paid back to people who invested in his former company, Nikola. According to the Post\u2019s reporting, \u201cat least 20 people who have received clemency from Trump so far this year \u2014 cutting their sentence short, restoring their civil rights after imprisonment or allowing them to avoid prison altogether \u2014 were also forgiven of financial penalties totaling tens of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spate of fiscal forgiveness in many ways mirrors a broader shift from the Trump administration, which is treating white-collar crime as a low priority. The Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi has told prosecutors to focus less on corruption cases, including foreign bribery schemes, and more on transnational criminal rings. Guidance issued from the department\u2019s Criminal Division in May warned that \u201coverbroad and unchecked corporate and white-collar enforcement burdens U.S businesses and harms U.S. interests,\u201d advising prosecutors to \u201cavoid overreach that punishes risk-taking and hinders innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of that can be chalked up to the natural shift of policies and priorities between administrations. It\u2019s unsurprising, however disagreeable it may be, that a Republican administration would err toward being more sympathetic to business when it comes to white-collar crime. What\u2019s more concerning is the lack of transparency surrounding the pardons that Trump is issuing.<\/p>\n

There is no constitutional limit on the pardon power, leaving the door open to potential corruption and abuses for a properly motivated president. Trump has employed it both widely and haphazardly this term, beginning with the pardoning of more than 1,000 Jan. 6 criminal cases. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s $100 billion Venezuela pitch meets oil industry skepticism<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked why he chose to forgive Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, Trump replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know. He was recommended by a lot of people.\u201d (Zhang, it must be noted, helped finance the Trump family\u2019s stablecoin startup.)<\/p>\n

When asked specifically about Milton\u2019s pardon in March, Trump gave no indication of knowing who he is, but offered that an unnamed \u201cthey\u201d told the president that the former Nikola CEO had been treated unfairly. \u201cAnd they say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,\u201d he told a reporter during an Oval Office appearance. \u201cHe supported Trump. He liked Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milton absolutely supported Trump, according to the Post, to the tune of $2.5 million in campaign donations ahead of the 2024 election. As CNBC reported in March, that included \u201c$920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October of 2024, and $750,000 in September to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s MAHA Alliance political action committee.\u201d According to Federal Election Commission records, he had never made such large donations in any previous cycle. And while he denied to the Post that he asked for or received any special treatment, Milton posted soon after his pardon that Trump himself had called on the phone to say that clemency was coming.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no phone call coming for the people who poured their money into Nikola based on Milton\u2019s deception. The pardon power\u2019s gift of mercy is one that is a necessity in an imperfect legal system. It is for times when the law in all its wisdom has failed and justice needs to be enacted in its place. Trump has instead opted to not just provide comfort and succor for those who haven\u2019t atoned for their crimes with his pardons, but actively prevent any justice that their victims might have received.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s autocratic moves begin to backfire<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In using the pardon power for convicted fraudsters, the president is ripping away any chance for victims getting their money back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s pardon spree is doing real harm to real people - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=69\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s pardon spree is doing real harm to real people - Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In using the pardon power for convicted fraudsters, the president is ripping away any chance for victims getting their money back.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=69\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T07:11:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43\"},\"headline\":\"Trump\u2019s pardon spree is doing real harm to real people\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T07:11:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69\"},\"wordCount\":810,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/1797cac2bc74482a39afdfb465f7d37f.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"US\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=69\",\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s pardon spree is doing real harm to real people - 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