List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump

[4] Trump often bypassed the OPA, and, unlike previous presidents, made the majority of his grants to executive clemency to "well-connected offenders who had not filed petitions with the pardon office or did not meet its requirements.

[6][4][7] Legal experts raised concerns that Trump was "relying on his personal connections rather than the Justice Department's established review process for finding convicts deserving of clemency.

"[7] On February 19, 2020, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy requested information on the process used by Trump in deciding to grant clemency to 11 people the preceding day.

[15] He frequently granted executive clemency to his supporters or political allies,[17][18] or following personal appeals or campaigns in conservative media,[19] as in the cases of Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza, and Clint Lorance, as well as Bernard Kerik.

[17] Trump granted clemency to five of his former campaign staff members and political advisers: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Stephen K. Bannon, and George Papadopoulos.

"[17] Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn B. Maloney, who chair two House committees, said that "No other president has exercised the clemency power for such a patently personal and self-serving purpose" and said that they would investigate whether Stone's commutation was a reward for protecting Trump.

[17][22][23] In 2018, following a request by celebrity Kim Kardashian, Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson who had been convicted of drug trafficking.

[25][26] Trump granted executive clemency to three court-martialed U.S. military officers who were accused or convicted of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[32] Trump issued pardons to seven Republican congressmen convicted of crimes: Chris Collins, Duncan D. Hunter, Steve Stockman, Rick Renzi, Robin Hayes, Mark Siljander, and Randall "Duke" Cunningham.

[21][33] The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association criticized Trump's pardons to executives who orchestrated massive Medicare frauds.

[15] From 2017 to 2019, the pardons included former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio;[36] former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who was convicted of taking classified photographs of classified areas inside a submarine;[37] Scooter Libby, a political aide to former vice president Dick Cheney;[38] conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza.

[40] In November and December 2020, Trump pardoned four Blackwater guards convicted of killing Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre;[41] white-collar criminals Michael Milken and Bernard Kerik;[42] and daughter Ivanka's father-in-law Charles Kushner.

[6] He also pardoned five people convicted as a result of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections: Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Alex van der Zwaan,[41] Roger Stone, whose 40-month sentence for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction he had already commuted in July, and Paul Manafort.

[202] In 2019, former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher was demoted following a July 2, 2019 court martial based on accusations that he had committed a war crime.

[222] On January 22, 2025, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons to Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton, two Washington, DC police officers.

[223][224] On October 23, 2020, Zabavsky and Sutton were involved in an unauthorized police pursuit that ended in a collision, which caused the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.