President Donald Trump granted blanket federal pardons to dozens of political allies accused of working to overturn the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani.
Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin posted a signed proclamation on X that granted “full, complete, and unconditional” pardons to Giuliani, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and legal allies like attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. All helped in some way with Trump’s efforts to interfere with the 2020 election results.
“Let their healing begin,” Martin said in the post.
Giuliani, a close Trump ally throughout his first term in office, has faced mounting legal consequences since 2020. He was disbarred in September 2024 for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, and settled a high-profile defamation lawsuit with election workers in Georgia earlier this year.
Republicans who posed as so-called “fake electors” for Trump in 2020 were also pardoned. They were charged in state cases for falsely claiming to be electors who would cast electoral votes for Trump, regardless of a state’s election results.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people,” Trump wrote in the pardon statement.
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The pardons are almost entirely symbolic, as none of the people pardoned have been accused of federal crimes. Still, they drew criticism from politicians and commentators from both political parties. Democratic Senator Andy Kim, D-N.J., said Trump’s pardons were “for his friends.”
“He’s not fighting for you,” Kim said in a post on X.
Neoconservative writer Bill Kristol blasted Trump for pardoning “allies who helped him try to subvert the 2020 election” in a post to social media.
“It’s a permission slip–no, it’s an encouragement, even an order–to allies to be ready to try to subvert the elections in 2026, and 2028,” Kristol wrote.
