President Trump's latest wave of clemency isn't just slashing prison terms—it's erasing debts owed to people who were told the law would help make them whole. A Washington Post review found that at least 20 people granted pardons or commutations by Trump this year also had their financial penalties wiped out, erasing tens of millions of dollars in restitution and fines. Some of that money was supposed to go to victims of fraud, like small investors who saw their retirements savings vanish, and some to the IRS. "It's having a detrimental effect on victims and taxpayers, and it's a windfall to the people who committed crimes," said former US pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer, who was fired early in Trump's second term.
The most visible case is that of Trevor Milton, the founder of electric-truck startup Nikola. A jury convicted him in 2022 of securities and wire fraud for misleading investors with boasts about supposedly revolutionary hydrogen trucks and tech that prosecutors said didn't exist. Judge Edgardo Ramos sentenced Milton to four years in prison in 2023 and signaled he was inclined to order $660 million in restitution for investors. Before that could happen, however, Trump pardoned Milton this past March, erasing the prison term and the looming restitution, and even letting Milton keep a 4,700-acre Utah ranch he'd been ordered to forfeit.
Investors like Utah businessman Liejo Supoto, who put more than $100,000 into Nikola stock after watching Milton promote the company on TV and online, are now left with little recourse beyond civil suits and a partial SEC settlement with the company. Supoto, who says he's recovered financially but quit the stock market, calls the outcome lopsided: "He got to keep all his money and he got his pardon. I don't think there was justice in that." "I just feel I've been betrayed," adds a 68-year-old retired wholesale produce distributor who has supported Trump, per the Los Angeles Times. "There was real loss to real people who listened to Mr. Milton and invested in Nikola," Judge Ramos said at a 2023 hearing, per the Post.
In other Trump clemency cases, the primary victim was the federal government. Health care bigwig Paul Walczak, for instance, who admitted to tax crimes and was mandated to pay more than $4 million to the IRS, was pardoned 12 days after his April sentencing, lifting both his prison term and his repayment obligation. The White House declined to say whether victims' restitution is considered in Trump's decisions, noting only that he's using his constitutional clemency power while arguing that former President Biden's pardon record also deserves scrutiny. ProPublica has more.
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