Overview
- Rolling Stone reports that Trump has issued more than 2,000 pardons and commutations this year, describing a pattern that benefits loyalists and connected figures and noting fresh additions such as Rep. Henry Cuellar.
- Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in the U.S. and sentenced to 45 years for a major drug‑trafficking conspiracy, was freed after a Trump pardon that the president defended by claiming Hernández was “set up.”
- Trump commuted the seven‑year sentence of private‑equity executive David Gentile, convicted of securities and wire fraud after a federal jury trial in the Eastern District of New York.
- Binance founder Changpeng Zhao received clemency after a money‑laundering guilty plea and a multibillion‑dollar corporate settlement, with the White House press secretary arguing he was overly prosecuted under the prior administration.
- Reporting raises pay‑for‑play concerns, citing a pardon for Paul Walczak after a high‑dollar fundraiser and the clemency granted to Nikola’s Trevor Milton, while lawmakers promote measures such as Rep. Steve Cohen’s amendment and the Abuse of Power Prevention Act to mandate pardon rationales and bar self‑pardons.