A gang leader who built a powerful criminal enterprise, an ex-congressman from New York who underreported earnings from his Manhattan restaurant and a Connecticut governor toppled in a corruption scandal all received clemency Wednesday in a sweeping series of orders signed by President Donald Trump.
Trump extended relief to at least 11 people whose crimes spanned decades and included tax evasion and extortion, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss decisions not yet made public.
The pardon recipients confirmed by the official all had felony convictions, like Trump, and could see an array of benefits, including restoration of voting rights and release from imprisonment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how Trump selected the recipients, and the official would not provide a full accounting of Trump’s clemency actions Wednesday.
Since reclaiming the White House, Trump has deployed pardons in a wide-reaching campaign to recalibrate a justice system he calls corrupt and says politically persecuted him. Some of those pardoned were convicted of crimes similar to charges brought against him or his family business. Others repeatedly flexed their loyalty to his administration in public, hoping to stand out among the thousands of petitioners vying for his attention.
Trump pardoned a former U.S. Army officer found guilty of refusing to follow coronavirus safety measures, a couple who admitted to knowingly employing a felon at their insurance company and a popular hip-hop artist, NBA YoungBoy, convicted of gun charges in addition to commuting the sentence of former Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover, the White House official said.
Help us report on the Trump administration
End of carousel
The pardons of former congressmen Michael Grimm of New York and John Rowland of Connecticut, who became the state’s governor, brought to nine the number of former Republican members of Congress Trump has pardoned while in office. During his first term, Trump also commuted sentences of former Democratic elected officials, including ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was found guilty of trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat, and the ex-mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for crimes including fraud and racketeering. He granted Blagojevich a full pardon in February.
Grimm, who served seven months in prison for tax fraud and was released in 2016, gained national attention after being caught on camera threatening a reporter who asked about the federal investigation, saying, “I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.” He has expressed steady public support for the Trump administration in posts to social media, including one of himself in August beside a horse wearing a “Trump 2024” hat.
Neither Grimm nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.
Rowland, who served as Connecticut’s governor from 1995 to 2004, was twice convicted on corruption-related charges: once for accepting illegal gifts and improvements to his private home from state contractors while governor and then for violating campaign finance laws.
“I am very humbled and deeply appreciative,” Rowland said in a statement to Eyewitness News on Wednesday. “I have been blessed with a wonderful family and friends that have been through a great deal over the years. This is a wonderful final resolution.”
Hoover, whose clemency was first reported by Notus, was convicted in 1997 of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and running Chicago’s Gangster Disciples — the culmination of a 17-year investigation into the criminal organization. At that time, he was already serving a 200-year sentence for killing a neighborhood drug dealer.
He later renounced the gang and requested a shorter sentence under the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice bill passed during Trump’s first term. In a celebratory post to X, a lawyer for Hoover, Justin Moore, called on the state of Illinois to drop Hoover’s murder charges, which would keep him behind bars despite the president’s commutation.
NBA YoungBoy, whose name is Kentrell Gaulden, was involved in a still-unresolved shootout outside the Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, in 2019 that left a man dead. His Louisiana attorney told the Miami Herald that the rapper — who offered to pay for the slain man’s funeral — was the target of an assassination attempt.
Earlier this week, Trump announced that he planned to pardon reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion, and a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of taking cash bribes in exchange for appointing deputy sheriffs without training or vetting. He signed the Chrisleys’ legal documents Wednesday.
The Chrisleys’ daughter was a speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where she said Democrats “consistently punish their enemies” and praised Trump as the man best equipped to expose what she called their corruption.
Addressing reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he is considering additional pardons for the men convicted in the kidnapping plot against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
“I will take a look at it. It’s been brought to my attention,” Trump said. “I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.”
Among his first officials acts as president was to pardon virtually all of the nearly 1,600 defendants convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters and to commute the sentences of the remaining 14. Weeks earlier, President Joe Biden had issued preemptive pardons to his siblings and their spouses, saying he feared they would be targeted for political reasons by the new administration.
Biden also issued unprecedented preemptive pardons for others he said needed protection: retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, a vocal critic of Trump; Anthony S. Fauci, who spearheaded the country’s pandemic response; members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack; and police officers who testified before the committee.
This week’s clemency spree landed as Ed Martin, a staunch defender of Jan. 6 defendants who fell short as Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., which oversaw those prosecutions, was ceremonially sworn in as the Justice Department’s pardons attorney.
“Freedom for Captives!” he wrote on X.
Martine Powers and David Ovalle contributed to this report.
