The U.S. Justice Department charged Texas real estate developer Tim Leiweke in July with falsifying documents during a bidding process to build a sports arena at the University of Texas, an offense that carried a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine if he were convicted.
The case, investigated by the FBI, was announced with fanfare by the Justice Department. But earlier this month, President Donald Trump abruptly undercut the prosecution, announcing that he was granting Leiweke a pardon before the case ever went to trial. No explanation was provided.
The decision drew limited attention amid a flood of headlines, including two other highly controversial pardons. Trump also pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who was awaiting trial on bribery charges, and Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted last year on major drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Since the pardon announcement, Honduran authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for Hernández. Trump defended the decision using a familiar rationale for pardons involving powerful figures convicted of serious crimes. “Good people told me he was treated unfairly,” Trump said, claiming without evidence that the Biden administration had “framed” Hernández. he did not address the fact that the investigation into Hernández was first revealed in 2019, during Trump’s own first term in office.
Trump also defended his pardon of Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Cuellar’s wife, Imelda, arguing that the case against them was politically motivated retaliation by the Biden administration.
Cuellar and his wife were charged last year with more than a dozen corruption counts, including allegations they accepted about $600,000 in bribes from banks in Mexico and Azerbaijan. Trump claimed the prosecution was punishment for Cuellar’s criticism of what he described as the Biden administration’s permissive approach toward migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep peacefully tonight. Your nightmare is finally over!” Trump wrote in a post announcing the pardon on his Truth Social platform.
Trump did not say so explicitly, but the decision appeared to reflect an expectation that Cuellar might break with the Democratic Party and align with Republicans, potentially helping them preserve their House majority in next year’s midterm elections. Cuellar said last week that he will seek reelection — as a Democrat.
Trump reacted angrily, accusing him of disloyalty in a follow-up post on Truth Social. “I signed the papers and told the people in the Oval Office that I did a very good thing, probably saving lives. God was very pleased with me that day!” Trump wrote. “And then this happened!!!”
Trump said that shortly after he signed the pardon, Cuellar announced he would again seek a seat in Congress in Texas — “the wonderful state where I received the highest number of votes ever!” — as a Democrat, and would “continue the work of the radical left scum” who, Trump claimed, had recently wanted Cuellar and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Calling the move a betrayal, Trump wrote, “What a lack of l-o-y-a-l-t-y, something the voters of Texas, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. OK, fine — next time, no more Mr. Nice Guy!”
Daniel Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said the episode shows how outside actors can dangerously influence Trump, warning, “If Henry Cuellar can play Trump like this, imagine how people like Putin eat their lunch every day.” Trump, however, appears largely unconcerned with criticism from Democrats, Republicans or even his own aides, acting, critics say, as if he believes he is a king — a claim he denies despite recent “No Kings” protests — while wielding the Constitution’s broad pardon power, which allows presidents to grant clemency for federal crimes except in cases of impeachment.
With few remaining constraints in his second term, Trump has issued pardons to allies, people with close interests, effective lobbyists and those he views as fellow victims of a political “witch hunt,” and has voiced support for foreign leaders facing prosecution, including former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn election results, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for bribery, echoing their claims of political persecution, unsuccessfully pressuring Brazil’s judiciary on Bolsonaro’s behalf and now pressing Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu during his trial.
Historically, U.S. presidents have used the pardon power mainly to address perceived injustices or reflect shifts in public consensus. President Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders, and President Joe Biden cleared the records of thousands convicted of marijuana possession. One of the most consequential pardons came in 1974, when President Gerald Ford granted Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any federal crimes he may have committed in office, a move that prevented criminal prosecution after the Watergate scandal and later contributed to Ford’s defeat in the 1976 election. The power has also been used controversially to benefit associates, most notably when President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich on his final day in office in 2001, after Rich’s ex-wife donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes and Clinton’s presidential library. Clinton later acknowledged the pardon was a mistake.
Biden also drew scrutiny for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, nullifying charges brought by his own Justice Department, and for issuing preemptive pardons in his final days in office to family members and others he feared could be targeted by Trump. Still, critics argue no president has used the pardon power as expansively or openly in pursuit of personal and political interests as Trump since his return to the White House.
During his first term, Trump issued 144 pardons, a relatively typical figure compared with recent presidents. But in the first year of his second term alone, he has granted about 1,700 pardons, including roughly 1,500 to people charged or convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump, who has referred to the imprisoned rioters as “hostages,” issued sweeping pardons on his first day back in office, including for individuals convicted of violence against police. About 20 of those pardoned have since been rearrested on charges including weapons offenses, sexual assault and drug crimes.
Fourteen senior members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers groups did not receive full pardons but had their lengthy prison sentences commuted, allowing their release. Trump has also pardoned numerous white-collar criminals, a pattern critics say sends a clear message that wealthy and politically connected individuals operate above the law.
'No MAGA left behind'
Last spring, Trump fired Liz Oyer, a senior Justice Department official who oversaw the Office of the Pardon Attorney, after she refused to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a Trump supporter whom the president later named a “special ambassador to Hollywood.” Oyer testified to Congress about heavy political pressure, but Trump replaced her with loyalist Ed Martin, who celebrated the appointment by posting, “No MAGA left behind.” Since then, critics say, a full-fledged “pardon economy” has emerged. A Wall Street Journal investigation described pardon seekers spending millions on lawyers and lobbyists offering access to Trump’s inner circle.
According to the report, associates of bitcoin investor Roger Ver, known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” contacted at least five Trump-connected lawyers and lobbyists, offering between $5 million and $30 million to secure a pardon that would void tax evasion charges. Ver ultimately declined to pay such sums but hired longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, who was himself pardoned by Trump in 2020 after a conviction for lying to Congress. Ver paid Stone $600,000 for two months of work, the Journal reported. Ver did not receive a pardon but reached a deal with the Justice Department in October, agreeing to pay $50 million in exchange for dropping the charges.
Trump has since issued a series of high-profile pardons and commutations. In March, he pardoned Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of electric truck maker Nikola, who had been sentenced to four years in prison for investor fraud. Trump said he did not know Milton personally but that he was “highly recommended by top people.” In October, Trump commuted the seven-year sentence of former Republican Rep. George Santos of New York, convicted of bank fraud and identity theft, ordering his immediate release and canceling his fines, though stopping short of erasing his criminal record. Trump also fully cleared former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who had been sentenced to 14 years for corruption; Trump freed him from prison in 2020 and erased his criminal record in February.
The president has also pardoned celebrities, including Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” who were convicted of bank fraud involving more than $30 million and sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison, respectively. Trump said they had been treated “pretty harshly” and released them in May. Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, a prominent Trump supporter, has accused prosecutors of corruption and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Trump has also pardoned former baseball star Darryl Strawberry for decades-old tax offenses and rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again, convicted of illegal gun possession.
8 View gallery
From right to left: former baseball star Darryl Strawberry, reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, and rapper YoungBoy
(Photo: Kathy Hutchins/shutterstock, AP Photo/Noah K. Murray, File)
Before Thanksgiving last month, Trump signed 70 pardons in a single day, including for political figures, activists and lawyers involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. One pardon went to Robert Hershberger, a Tennessee pharmacist and husband of Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger, convicted of health care fraud after substituting an FDA-approved drug with a cheaper import from China for dialysis patients. Critics say the system rewards loyalty: Trump has openly suggested that personal relationships matter. Asked recently about a possible pardon for rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, convicted on prostitution-related charges, Trump said, “I got along with him great — but when I ran for president, he became very hostile, and that makes it hard for me to give him a pardon.”
The crypto billionaire and the conflict of interest
Trump’s clemency record also shows a pattern of pardoning wealthy offenders and people convicted of major financial and drug crimes. About two months ago, he pardoned Chinese-Canadian billionaire Changpeng Zhao, founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, who admitted two years earlier that his platform was used by terrorist groups and sanctioned actors without proper reporting. Zhao had already served a four-month prison sentence, and the pardon is widely seen as clearing the way for Binance to resume operations in the United States. According to The Wall Street Journal, Binance took steps last spring that boosted the value of a cryptocurrency developed by World Liberty Financial, a company owned by the Trump family. Asked on “60 Minutes” why he granted the pardon, Trump said, “I don’t know who he is,” adding that “good people told me he was treated very unfairly.”
Trump has also pardoned or commuted sentences in major drug cases. On his first day back in office in January, he granted a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, who created and ran the Silk Road darknet marketplace, where prosecutors said more than $200 million in illegal drugs were sold. Ulbricht was sentenced in 2015 to two life terms plus 40 years without parole. Trump called the sentence “ridiculous” and said Ulbricht, like himself, had been persecuted.
Trump later commuted the life sentence of Larry Hoover, a Chicago gang leader, though Hoover remains imprisoned for a separate 1973 murder conviction under Illinois state law. Trump also pardoned Baltimore drug kingpin Garnett Gilbert Smith, who served 25 years for violent drug offenses and, as previously noted, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced to 45 years for running his country as a “narco-state.” The Washington Post reported that in the first year of Trump’s second term, he pardoned 10 people convicted of serious drug crimes, even as the U.S. military has intensified operations in the Caribbean against suspected drug smuggling.
The scale and brazenness of Trump’s use of the pardon power has prompted criticism even from conservative circles. An editorial in the conservative magazine National Review said Trump has openly used pardons to gain political support, reward allies and wipe away convictions tied to the January 6 Capitol riot, calling for constitutional limits on presidential clemency. Such changes are unlikely while Trump remains in office.
The question increasingly raised by critics is whether he will go even further — potentially pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. The Trump administration recently transferred Maxwell to what critics describe as one of the most comfortable federal prisons in Texas after she testified that Trump was always a “gentleman” and that she never saw him behave inappropriately. A pardon, some argue, now appears like a possible next step.