By Evaristo Lara
Some of the pardons granted by President Donald Trump during his second stage in the White House are being investigated by a pair of Democrats amid suspicions that money could be involved.
Peter Welch, senator from Vermont, and Dave Min, representative from California, established contact with 17 people who were pardoned by the seventy-nine-year-old Republican, or received commutations of sentences.
Welch sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and was a member of the House Oversight Committee during his time in the House.
As for Min, he serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s anti-corruption task force.
Both figures agree on the need to reveal any indication of opacity in the granting of pardons.
For this reason, through a letter, both politicians personally questioned 17 pardoned individuals to determine if the president granted them clemency in exchange for giving him something.
“Historically, executive clemency has been understood as an act of grace exercised in the interests of justice and public welfare, but it cannot become a tool for political favoritism,
At a time when Americans are already losing faith in our institutions, Congress has a responsibility to exercise oversight and ensure that no one, including a sitting president, is above accountability,” they noted. jointly in a statement.
According to a list of beneficiaries released by Senator Min’s office, some pardones such as Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of Nikola Company, donated to Trump’s campaign.
This is relevant given the fact that he had been convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud, and in 2023, federal prosecutors sought approximately $661 million in compensation from investors.
However, a donation made by the businessman and his wife to Trump’s 2024 campaign fund, which consisted of $1.8 million, months later gained notoriety when his pardon was announced in March 2025.
Hence the interest in analyzing pardons similar to that one again.
Under this approach, the recipients of the letters sent were asked to provide their responses before May 22.
Keep reading:
• Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election
• Donald Trump granted three more surprise and controversial pardons
• Trump reported that he commuted George Santos’ sentence for fraud
• Trump pardons former Republican congressman Michael Grimm on tax fraud charges
• Donald Trump pardoned a former business partner of Hunter Biden
