Trump pardons 77 people linked to 2020 presidential election challenge

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation providing pardons for a slew of people accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential elections, including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows.

The proclamation claims it “ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people” following the 2020 election, in which former President Joe Biden ousted Trump.

The president’s pardon grants “full, complete, and unconditional pardons to all United State citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors, whether or not recognized by and 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” as part of the election.

The pardon, signed Friday, names 77 people, including Giuliani, Meadows, John Eastman and Sidney Powell. Trump notes that the pardon doesn’t include himself.

Meadows served as the president’s chief of staff during his first administration, while Powell and Eastman served as attorneys for Trump.

To be sure, none of the those pardoned have been charged with federal crimes; however, some have faced charges in states such as Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona. The pardon doesn’t protect people charged with crimes in those states.

Ed Martin, the U.S. Pardon Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, made the announcement Monday morning.

Martin posted on his personal X account, “No MAGA left behind.”

In a separate post, he explained the reasoning behind the pardons, saying the Biden administration had targeted the people.

“A very little bit behind the curtain: When I began as U.S. Pardon Attorney, POTUS encouraged us to look at two categories of Americans especially: First, those who needed and deserved clemency, especially long serving inmates who are ready to be released. Second, he wanted us to look at those people who had been targeted by the Biden administration. The targeted is a huge group of Americans,” Martin posted on X. “We’ve been working hard to find them and one group that jumped up right away is the [2020] alternate electors and their affiliates who were targeted by Jack Smith and others. Gen. Bondi and DAG Blanche pushed us to do it right and fast. There are many more Americans who Biden targeted. And we’re working to help them.”

On the evening of Trump’s second inauguration in January, the president pardoned about 1,500 individuals accused of being involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots.