WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republicans' efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a Justice Department official says.
Ed Martin, the government's pardon attorney, posted on social media a signed proclamation of the “full, complete, and unconditional" pardon, which also names conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. The proclamation, posted online late Sunday, explicitly says the pardon does not apply to Trump.
Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, and none of the Trump allies were charged in a federal case. But the move underscores Trump's efforts to continue to rewrite the history of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The White House didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump in 2020 and were charged in state cases of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden's victory in those states.
The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those who were involved in the 2020 election schemes “as a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation.”