President Donald Trump has issued a sweeping list of pardons for allies who backed his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. According to Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, the document was released on Sunday evening.
Full and unconditional pardons were granted, among others, to Rudy Giuliani, who led pressure campaigns on state legislatures to refuse certification of Joe Biden’s victory in key swing states; Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House chief of staff in 2020 and a central conduit between the president and state officials; lawyers John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, architects of the plan to press then–Vice President Mike Pence to derail certification of the Electoral College on January 6, 2021; longtime Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn; and attorney Sidney Powell, who spearheaded a barrage of baseless lawsuits challenging the vote in several states.
The pardons are largely symbolic: none of the named individuals had been charged under federal law. The document published by Martin bears no date, leaving unclear when exactly Trump signed it. The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment. Giuliani, Eastman, and Powell had been listed as potential co-conspirators in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, but were never formally indicted. The pardons now shield them from prosecution by future administrations.
The text is drafted in exceptionally broad terms, extending to “all U.S. citizens for actions related to advising, creating, organizing, implementing, supporting, or participating in any group of purported electors, as well as for any actions undertaken to detect irregularities or vulnerabilities in the conduct of the 2020 election.”
Although Trump has long insisted he has the power to pardon himself—a claim that has never been tested in court—he clearly chose not to put that theory to the test. The document explicitly excludes Trump, though it allows the pardon to apply to others who meet the stated criteria.
Beyond his inner circle, Trump also pardoned dozens of Republican activists who signed fraudulent certificates declaring themselves legitimate electors—a central element of his effort to pressure Pence. Many of them are already facing charges in states that investigated the actions of Trump and his allies, including Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada. The president, however, has no authority to issue pardons in state-level cases.
The pardons mark a fresh attempt by Trump to rewrite the history of his bid to cling to power after losing the election—a campaign that culminated in his supporters’ assault on the Capitol. In January, shortly after his inauguration, Trump also pardoned more than a thousand participants in the attack, including hundreds who had assaulted police officers defending the Capitol.
The list of those pardoned includes former state Republican Party chairs David Shafer of Georgia, Kelli Ward of Arizona, and Michael McDonald of Nevada, all charged by state authorities for their role in the “fake electors” scheme. Also pardoned is Wisconsin attorney James Troupis, who faces similar accusations.
The list also includes Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign lawyer who worked alongside Giuliani and later pleaded guilty in Georgia while cooperating with prosecutors in several states. Chesebro likewise entered a guilty plea to one charge in Georgia and has testified before prosecutors in Arizona and Nevada.