Overview

• President Trump granted full clemency on May 28 to John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell for freeing 19 sharks and a giant grouper from a NOAA-licensed research longline off Jupiter Inlet in August 2020.
• Their December 2022 convictions for maritime theft had carried one year of probation, $3,345 in restitution and barred them from voting, owning firearms and traveling internationally.
• Moore and Mansell maintained they acted to protect sharks they believed were trapped illegally, while federal prosecutors said they knowingly sabotaged a lawful research operation.
• During a 2024 appeal hearing, two judges in the 11th Circuit, including Barbara Lagoa, questioned why the divers faced criminal charges, calling the prosecution hard to justify.
• The pardons erase the men’s felony records and immediately restore their civil and gun rights, prompting defense attorneys to denounce the original case as excessive.