U.S. President Donald Trump pardons 77 allies, including Giuliani and Meadows, over 2020 election probe, citing “national reconciliation.”
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned dozens of allies accused of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark and Sidney Powell, a top U.S. Justice Department official said on Monday.
Trump, in a proclamation dated on Friday, said the move would end “a grave national injustice” and “continue the process of national reconciliation,” according to a document posted on X by Ed Martin, who oversees the department’s weaponization group.
The Justice Department had been investigating a plan by Trump and his supporters to submit alternative slates of state electors to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Trump won a second term defeating Biden in 2024.
Pardons include at least 77 people
Trump was also indicted over the alleged plot to seek phony electors backing his false claims that he won in 2020, but the case was dismissed after last year’s election after prosecutors cited Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Several U.S. states also investigated the alleged electors scheme, with some filing charges although criminal charges in at least one state were dismissed.
Trump’s pardons include 77 people but could include others not named, the document said. Presidential pardons only apply to federal charges, and do not apply to state cases.
The list also includes Christina Bobb, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, among others. The pardon does not apply to Trump, according to the document.
Several of Trump’s other recent pardons were not officially announced by the White House as they happened. The White House did not reply to a request for comment on Friday’s pardons. – Reuters
