Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and other alleged 2020 plotters

Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell, all close former political allies or lawyers of Donald Trump, are among scores of people pardoned by the president over the weekend for their roles in an alleged plot to steal the 2020 election.

In a statement posted on X, US pardon attorney Ed Martin announced that the Trump administration had granted pardons to 77 people said to have taken part in a scheme to install fake Republican electors in several battleground states, which would have falsely declared Trump the winner of the 2020 election instead of Joe Biden.

In a post on X, US pardon attorney Ed Martin celebrated the move, writing «Breaking: President Trump pardoned the 2020 Alternative Electors.» He went on to thank Trump, the White House and several senior legal advisers for allowing him to help carry out the president’s intent, saying it would «let their healing begin».

Ed Martin also attached to his post a copy of a document titled «A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump», setting out a list of 77 people to whom Trump granted a «full, complete, and unconditional pardon» for conduct linked to efforts to create and promote alternative slates of presidential electors and to expose alleged voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 election.

Among those pardoned are Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer, accused of pushing false fraud claims and backing the fake electors plan; Mark Meadows, Trump’s final White House chief of staff, accused of helping pressure officials and support efforts to keep Trump in power after 2020; and Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer tied to conspiracy theories about voting machines and efforts to overturn results in key states.

John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, conservative lawyers close to Trump, were accused of designing the legal strategy behind the fake electors. Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark was accused of drafting a false DOJ letter to urge states to appoint alternate Trump electors. Jenna Ellis, another Trump campaign lawyer, was accused of spreading false claims of massive fraud to support that broader effort.

These are only a few examples of the alleged offenses committed by those pardoned by Trump, who are all accused of having played an active role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in his favor.

In the written proclamation, Trump describes the cases against those he has just pardoned as a «grave national injustice» and presents the pardons as a step that continues the process of national reconciliation.

«This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation.»