In one of the final acts of his presidency, Donald Trump granted a wave of pardons and commutations to 143 individuals including political allies, rappers and financiers. Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, was among those pardoned after being charged with fraud in August 2020 during a fundraising campaign for the wall on the border with Mexico. Trump stopped short of giving himself a pre-emptive pardon, however, with members of his family and his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani also absent from the list. A source familiar with the situation stated that White House officials advised Trump against pardoning himself and his family as it may give the impression they are guilty of crimes.
Trump's decision to focus on clemency during his final hours in office fits in with the actions of his predecessors. At the end of his eight years in the White House, Obama announced that he was commuting the sentences of some 330 prisoners, the majority of whom had been serving time for minor drug offences. The practice of presidential clemency has proven controversial for years with notable examples being Gerald Ford's pardoning of Richard Nixon along with Bill Clinton's final day pardoning of his brother Roger and billionaire fugitive Mark Rich.
Trump is unusual in that he has used pardons, commutations and other forms of leniency far less frequently than other modern presidents, particularly his direct predecessor. Department of Justice data shows that Obama granted clemency 1,927 times, the most since Harry S. Truman. He primarily focused on commutations that cut prison sentences short with 1,715 in total while he ordered 212 pardons. By comparison, Trump granted 89 commutations and 116 pardons. Along with Steven Bannon, high profile pardons of the Trump presidency include former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, long-time ally Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, his son-in-law's father.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
Number of executive clemency actions granted by U.S. presidents since 1933.
