Controversial Pardons: Pattern of Clemency for Political Allies and January 6 Defendants
Tier 3Resolved2017-08-25 to 2025-01-20
Factual Summary
Over the course of his two terms, Donald Trump's use of the presidential clemency power followed a documented pattern of benefiting political allies, individuals convicted in investigations connected to his own conduct, and participants in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. Legal analysts and former Justice Department officials noted that the pattern departed significantly from the traditional Office of Pardon Attorney (OPA) review process.
The sequence of individual pardons during Trump's first term included the following. On August 25, 2017, Trump pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, who had been convicted of criminal contempt for defying a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latino residents. The pardon came before Arpaio was sentenced, an unusual procedural step. On November 25, 2020, Trump granted a full pardon to Michael Flynn, his former National Security Advisor, who had pleaded guilty twice to making false statements to FBI agents during the Russia investigation. The pardon covered any offenses Flynn "has committed or may have committed or taken part in" from January 1, 2014, through November 25, 2020, an unusually broad formulation. On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, who had been convicted on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering, and lying to Congress in connection with the Russia investigation. Stone's commutation came four days before he was scheduled to report to prison. Trump subsequently issued a full pardon to Stone in December 2020. Trump also pardoned Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who had been convicted of bank fraud, tax fraud, and failure to register as a foreign agent. Manafort was pardoned on December 23, 2020, in the final weeks of Trump's first term. On January 19, 2021, the day before Biden's inauguration, Trump pardoned Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who had been indicted on federal wire fraud charges for allegedly defrauding donors who contributed to a private border wall fundraising campaign. Bannon had not yet been tried at the time of the pardon.
Of the 237 pardons and commutations Trump granted during his first term, the Department of Justice's Office of Pardon Attorney reviewed and recommended only 25. The remaining clemency grants bypassed the standard review process entirely, which includes interviews with prosecutors, victims, and the applicant.
On January 20, 2025, Trump's first day beginning his second term, he issued clemency to approximately 1,500 individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The pardons included individuals convicted of assaulting police officers. The pardons were granted by executive order rather than individual review.
Primary Sources
1. United States v. Arpaio, No. CR-16-01012-001 (D. Ariz.), conviction and pardon records
2. Executive Grant of Clemency for Michael Flynn, November 25, 2020: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/
3. Executive Grant of Clemency for Paul Manafort, December 23, 2020: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/
4. Executive Order on Pardons for January 6 Defendants, January 20, 2025: https://www.whitehouse.gov/
5. Department of Justice, Office of Pardon Attorney, clemency statistics and review procedures: https://www.justice.gov/pardon
Corroborating Sources
1. ProPublica: "Trump's Pardons Bypassed the Normal Review Process Almost Every Time," 2021
2. Washington Post: "Trump pardoned allies who aided his political ambitions, defied investigators and lied to Congress," January 2021
3. New York Times: "Trump Pardons Bannon, Manafort, Stone and 140 Others," January 20, 2021
4. NPR: "Trump issues mass pardon for Jan. 6 rioters, including those convicted of assaulting police," January 20, 2025
5. Lawfare: "The Pardon Power and Its Limits," analysis of presidential clemency norms
Counterarguments and Context
Trump has defended each grant of clemency on the merits of the individual cases. He argued that Arpaio was the victim of a politically motivated prosecution and that his law enforcement record warranted relief. He characterized the prosecutions of Flynn, Stone, Manafort, and Bannon as products of a "witch hunt" connected to what he called an illegal investigation into his 2016 campaign. He argued that the January 6 defendants had been treated unjustly by prosecutors and held in pre-trial detention under harsh conditions. The pardon power under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution is broad and subject to few legal constraints. Presidents of both parties have granted pardons that generated public controversy. Presidents Ford and Carter both issued broad clemency related to Vietnam-era draft resistance. President Clinton pardoned financier Marc Rich in his final hours in office, a decision that also bypassed the OPA and generated significant criticism.
Author's Note
This entry documents the pattern and circumstances of the grants of clemency, not the underlying guilt or innocence of any recipient. The constitutional pardon power is near-absolute in its scope. The significance assigned to this entry reflects the scale of bypassed OPA review, the concentration of recipients among individuals convicted in investigations connected to Trump himself, and the breadth of the January 6 mass pardon. Related conduct by individuals who received pardons is documented under OBSTR-001 and INCITE-002.