Pardoned Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner
Trump pardoned his convicted allies — Roger Stone (witness tampering), Paul Manafort (fraud), and Charles Kushner (Jared's father, tax evasion and witness tampering) — in what even Republican senators called "unprecedented corruption."
In the final weeks of his first term, Trump issued pardons to his closest convicted allies, using the presidential pardon power as a personal loyalty reward system:
- Roger Stone (commuted July 2020, full pardon December 2020): Convicted of lying to Congress about Trump-Russia contacts and witness tampering. Trump commuted his sentence days before he was due to report to prison.
- Paul Manafort (pardoned December 2020): Trump's former campaign chairman, convicted of financial fraud and tax evasion stemming from the Mueller investigation. Had been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.
- Charles Kushner (pardoned December 2020): Jared Kushner's father, convicted of tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and witness tampering — including hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and secretly filming it to use as blackmail.
Speaker Pelosi called the Stone commutation "an act of staggering corruption." Republican Senator Mitt Romney called it "unprecedented, historic corruption." The pardons were widely understood as rewards for loyalty and silence — using the pardon power to obstruct justice by ensuring allies faced no consequences for crimes committed in Trump's service.