President Donald Trump has granted preemptive pardons to Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, and other figures involved in the campaign to overturn the 2020 election, the Department of Justice announced Monday.
Trump also preemptively pardoned Sidney Powell and John Eastman, two other attorneys who contributed to the efforts to keep Trump in power. Further, Trump pardoned dozens of other Republicans who came forward to act as alternative electors in the event that Congress complied with Trump’s demands and rejected the legitimate slate of electors submitted by each state.
The U.S. government’s pardon attorney Ed Martin characterized the pardons as “full, complete, and unconditional,” in a post on social media.
“Let their healing begin,” Martin wrote in a post on X.
The pardon list includes 77 people, none of whom have been convicted of federal crimes.
The pardon also includes Boris Epshteyn, current personal senior counsel to the president and former political adviser; Mark Meadows, the president’s former chief of staff; and Kenneth Chesebro, a former Trump lawyer who helped plan the alternative elector strategy.
“I, DONALD J. TRUMP, do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities in, or advocacy for or of any slate of presidential electors … in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election,” the pardon proclamation reads.
Notably, the pardon does not also cover the president. Trump was indicted on felony charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
While Giuliani is not currently facing any federal charges that would be covered by the pardon, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election have led to a slew of legal troubles in recent years.
The former New York City mayor was disbarred last year by a judge who said he had “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.” The year before, he was convicted of defaming two Georgia poll workers whom he had falsely accused of trying to steal the election from Trump. Giuliani was ordered to pay the women $148 million and subsequently filed for bankruptcy.
Giuliani is currently facing election interference charges in Arizona, which are not covered by the pardon. Prosecutors there say Giuliani was involved in a scheme to pressure local officials to throw the 2020 election to Trump.
Giuliani has been accused in multiple legal contexts of leading the charge to overturn the 2020 election results. In Georgia, Giuliani allegedly presented false claims of election fraud to state legislative committees. He also allegedly conspired to send alternative electors to cast ballots on January 6, even after Georgia completed a comprehensive recount that solidified former President Joe Biden’s victory.
Other charges in connection with the Georgia events include conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, and filing false documents.
Giuliani is also widely believed to have been referred to as “Co-Conspirator 1″ in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump. The indictment described “Co-Conspirator 1” as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” The case, however, was dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election.
In granting allies preemptive pardons, Trump is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Biden, who issued preemptive pardons to several members of his family as well as allies, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley, whom he believed would be subjected to political persecution at the hands of Trump.
The preemptive pardons issued by Biden — including to his brother, James Biden, and his brother’s wife, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, John T. Owens; and his brother, Francis W. Biden — were extraordinarily broad, covering any nonviolent offenses “which they may have committed or taken part in” from January 1, 2014, to his last day in office. At the time, several Senate Democrats criticized the president for establishing a precedent that Trump could later take advantage of.
“I think we’re going to have a very hard time critiquing Donald Trump’s improper use of the pardon power because of President Biden pardoning his own family members,” Senator Tim Kaine (D., Va.) told reporters, adding that he was “very disappointed” by the move.