US President Donald Trump has granted sweeping pardons to top allies accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election, according to the administration’s pardon attorney, Ed Martin, on Sunday.
Martin shared a list on X of more than 70 individuals, including Trump’s former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who received “full, complete and unconditional” pardons.
The individuals named were involved in a scheme to alter slates of electors in key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, which Joe Biden had won in the 2020 presidential election.
That plot, supported by Trump and his allies, contributed to a demonstration that escalated into a riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
None of those listed in the four-page pardon directive had been federally charged, but the move could block future administrations from prosecuting the alleged co-conspirators.
Also included on the list are John Eastman, the lawyer who proposed strategies to prevent certification of the election results, and longtime Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn.
Trump has long argued that he has the power to pardon himself for federal crimes, though he has not tested this theory.
In the pardon document, which covers actions “in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election” or related to “efforts to expose voting fraud,” Trump clarified that “this pardon does not apply to the President of the United States.”
AFP
