Trump Pardons 77 Allies Who Attempted to Overturn 2020 Election Including Giuliani, Meadows, and Fake Electors

President Trump issued comprehensive federal pardons to 77 individuals involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, Jeffrey Clark, and 67 so-called ‘fake electors’ from seven battleground states who fraudulently certified Trump as winner despite Biden’s legitimate victory. The proclamation, dated November 7 but announced November 10 by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, grants ‘full, complete, and unconditional’ pardons for ‘conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors’ in connection with the 2020 election.

The pardons cover fake electors from Arizona (11 individuals including state Sen. Jake Hoffman and former Sen. Anthony Kern), Georgia (16 individuals including former GOP chair David Shafer, state Sen. Shawn Still, and former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham), Michigan (all 16 fake electors including RNC committeewoman Kathy Berden and former state GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock), Nevada (6 individuals including GOP Chairman Michael McDonald and RNC committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid), Wisconsin (10 fake electors including former GOP chair Andrew Hitt), and attorneys who coordinated the scheme across multiple states. Four recipients—Powell, Chesebro, Ellis, and attorney Scott Hall—had previously pleaded guilty in Georgia state court to crimes related to election subversion, while dozens faced pending state charges in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

Critically, the pardons are largely symbolic because they only apply to federal crimes, and none of the 77 individuals had been charged federally—all faced state-level prosecutions that presidential clemency cannot override. Fulton County DA Fani Willis (subsequently disqualified over ethics violations), Arizona AG Kris Mayes, Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul, and Nevada prosecutors all confirmed the pardons have ’no effect’ on ongoing state criminal cases. The fake electors in Pennsylvania and New Mexico were not included because they added legal caveats to their certificates and were never charged with crimes. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt justified the pardons by claiming recipients ‘were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden Administration for challenging an election,’ despite the fact that state attorneys general, not federal prosecutors, brought the charges.

Legal experts condemned the pardons as unprecedented abuse of clemency power and an attack on democratic accountability. A former federal pardon attorney stated the pardons ‘appear to be a step in the direction of testing the limits to see if the president can, in fact, intervene in state court criminal cases, which would be unprecedented and not what our Constitution intended.’ Stanford constitutional law professor Bernadette Meyler noted Trump’s pardons show ‘more of a sense of the insider pardon than we’ve seen previously,’ rewarding political loyalty over justice considerations. Critics argued the pardons send a message that ‘if you commit crimes in the name of Donald Trump, the administration will stand by you,’ creating a systematic incentive structure for lawlessness in service of Trump’s political objectives. The pardons represent Trump’s most brazen attempt to rewrite the history of January 6 and the 2020 election, using presidential power to shield conspirators who attempted to subvert American democracy and install him in office despite losing the election by over 7 million votes.