Donations, deals and pardons: the pattern critics call 'clemency for cash'

Trevor Milton, founder of the electric-truck maker Nikola, was convicted of securities and wire fraud for misleading investors. He and his wife gave more than $1.8 million to pro-Trump committees in 2024, and Trump pardoned him in March 2025, wiping out a pending restitution request of several hundred million dollars.

Paul Walczak, a nursing-home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes involving his employees' payroll taxes, was pardoned in April 2025, weeks after his mother, Republican fundraiser Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million-per-person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. His pardon application cited her political work.

Changpeng Zhao, founder of the crypto exchange Binance, pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering failures and was pardoned in October 2025. Binance had helped build the stablecoin of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto venture, and an Abu Dhabi-backed firm used that stablecoin for a $2 billion investment in Binance.

An August 2026 staff report by House Judiciary Committee Democrats estimates Trump's pardons have erased nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures, up from their $1.3 billion estimate in 2025. The criticism is not only partisan: the libertarian Cato Institute has also written that the pattern makes many pardons look transactional.