Donald Trump has reportedly told his closest advisers that he will issue mass pardons at the end of his second presidential term, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The president allegedly made the promise in casual conversations over the past year, joking that he would pardon anyone who came within 200 feet of the Oval Office. In another instance, he reportedly used a smaller radius of 10 feet. Some sources claim Trump has floated the idea of a news conference to announce the pardons.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, responded to the report by saying: “The Wall Street Journal should learn to take a joke. However, the president’s pardon power is absolute.” Since starting his second term, Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,800 people, including unconditional pardons on his first day in office for 1,500 individuals involved in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack.
Many of Trump’s clemency acts have been framed as rebukes to the justice system, following Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in the 2020 election and subsequent prosecutions. In October, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, who had been sentenced to four months in prison for anti-money laundering violations. Earlier in the year, Binance paid $2bn to World Liberty Financial, a crypto enterprise run by Trump’s family.
Trump also commuted the seven-year prison sentence of former US representative George Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. Santos was released after three months behind bars. The president commented: “He lied like hell. But he was 100% for Trump.”
