Trump pardons Giuliani, Meadows and others over plot to steal 2020 election | Trump administration
Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, both close former political allies of Donald Trump, are among scores of people pardoned by the president over the weekend for their roles in a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.
The maneuver is actually symbolic, given that it applies only to the federal justice system and not to state courts where Giuliani, Meadows and others face legal jeopardy. Amnesty measures announced In a post to X late Sunday By US pardon lawyer Ed Martininvolves 77 individuals said to be the architects and operatives of a scheme to plant fake Republican voters in various battleground states; This would falsely declare Trump the winner instead of the real victor: Joe Biden.
Those pardoned include Trump’s former lawyers Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff during his first term in office. Other prominent names include Jenna Ellis and John Eastman, lawyers who advised Trump during and immediately after the election, which Biden won, about pausing Trump’s two terms.
In the post, Martin thanked Trump, attorney general Pam Bondi and deputy Todd Blanche for “allowing me to achieve your goal,” and said, “Let their healing begin.”
Martin is a staunch conservative ally of the president who is said to be behind the “weaponization” of the justice department and an effort to “bully, prosecute, punish and silence” Trump’s political enemies and critics, including the recent indictments of former FBI director James Comey, New York attorney general Leticia James and former national security adviser John Bolton.
The pardons expand Trump’s efforts to rewrite the aftermath of the 2020 election and deprive Biden of the White House. On his first day back in office in January, Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardon for more than 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress that left five people dead and scores injured, including law enforcement, during a desperate bid by his supporters to keep him in office.
Many of those included in Martin’s pardon document, which specifically stated “does not apply to the president of the United States,” were embroiled in legal cases and investigations in multiple states won by Biden, including Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.
The pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters are also “full, complete and unconditional” and valid only in federal court.largely symbolic”, according to the New York Times.
Cases against some individuals are still active at the state level; Including in Georgia, where the election interference trial against the original 19 defendants, including Trump, stalled because of the disqualification of Fulton district attorney Fani Willis.
Ellis joins Powell and another Trump lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, in striking a plea deal in the Georgia case in 2023. Addressing the court in tears, he admitted that he was accused of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.
Chesebro was disbarred in New York earlier this year, Ellis’ law license in Colorado was suspended for three years, and efforts to disbar Powell failed because a panel in Texas ruled his misdemeanor convictions in Georgia were crimes. neither serious nor intentional.
Giuliani also faced serious consequences as the leader of the plan to keep Trump in office. He was banned from practicing law in New York and Washington DC. He was ordered to pay almost $150 million to two Georgia election officials he slandered. And the former New York mayor is also caught up in defamation lawsuits involving two voting machine manufacturers, Dominion and Smartmatic.
Meadows, meanwhile, failed to convince the high court to move the Georgia election case to federal court and pleaded not guilty last year to charges in Arizona, where he was among 18 defendants.
In his statement dated November 7, Trump described efforts to prosecute those accused of aiding his efforts to cling to power as a “serious national injustice to the American people” and stated that the pardons were designed to continue the “process of national reconciliation.”
The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
