It can be easy to think of President Donald Trump’s abuses of power in a vacuum or as an academic exercise. Many of his most flagrant violations have been against the norms, laws and values we collectively call “the rule of law.” Near the top of the list are the string of controversial pardons, commutations and other reversals of fortune that Trump has issued since returning to the White House in January.
It’s helpful then, if not exactly desirable, when Trump’s actions have clear consequences that bring them from the abstract to painful reality. The Washington Post highlighted one such instance recently, focusing in on the case of Trevor Milton, a former CEO convicted of fraud in 2022. Trump pardoned Milton in March, erasing his conviction before the judge in his case could issue an order for restitution, the official term for compensation to victims for their losses. (As the Post notes, Milton “repeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong and has been promoting a documentary proclaiming his innocence.”)
The spate of fiscal forgiveness in many ways mirrors a broader shift from the Trump administration
With the stroke of a pen, Trump had eliminated any chance for Milton’s defrauded investors from receiving anything, let alone the $680 million that prosecutors argued should be paid back to people who invested in his former company, Nikola. According to the Post’s reporting, “at least 20 people who have received clemency from Trump so far this year — cutting their sentence short, restoring their civil rights after imprisonment or allowing them to avoid prison altogether — were also forgiven of financial penalties totaling tens of millions of dollars.”
The spate of fiscal forgiveness in many ways mirrors a broader shift from the Trump administration, which is treating white-collar crime as a low priority. The Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi has told prosecutors to focus less on corruption cases, including foreign bribery schemes, and more on transnational criminal rings. Guidance issued from the department’s Criminal Division in May warned that “overbroad and unchecked corporate and white-collar enforcement burdens U.S businesses and harms U.S. interests,” advising prosecutors to “avoid overreach that punishes risk-taking and hinders innovation.”
Some of that can be chalked up to the natural shift of policies and priorities between administrations. It’s unsurprising, however disagreeable it may be, that a Republican administration would err toward being more sympathetic to business when it comes to white-collar crime. What’s more concerning is the lack of transparency surrounding the pardons that Trump is issuing.
There is no constitutional limit on the pardon power, leaving the door open to potential corruption and abuses for a properly motivated president. Trump has employed it both widely and haphazardly this term, beginning with the pardoning of more than 1,000 Jan. 6 criminal cases.
What’s more concerning is the lack of transparency surrounding the pardons that Trump is issuing. When asked why he chose to forgive Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, Trump replied: “I don’t know. He was recommended by a lot of people.” (Zhang, it must be noted, helped finance the Trump family’s stablecoin startup.) When asked specifically about Milton’s pardon in March, Trump gave no indication of knowing who he is, but offered that an unnamed “they” told the president that the former Nikola CEO had been treated unfairly. “And they say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” he told a reporter during an Oval Office appearance. “He supported Trump. He liked Trump.” Milton absolutely supported Trump, according to the Post, to the tune of $2.5 million in campaign donations ahead of the 2024 election. As CNBC reported in March, that included “$920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October of 2024, and $750,000 in September to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA Alliance political action committee.” According to Federal Election Commission records, he had never made such large donations in any previous cycle. And while he denied to the Post that he asked for or received any special treatment, Milton posted soon after his pardon that Trump himself had called on the phone to say that clemency was coming. There’s no phone call coming for the people who poured their money into Nikola based on Milton’s deception. The pardon power’s gift of mercy is one that is a necessity in an imperfect legal system. It is for times when the law in all its wisdom has failed and justice needs to be enacted in its place. Trump has instead opted to not just provide comfort and succor for those who haven’t atoned for their crimes with his pardons, but actively prevent any justice that their victims might have received.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW Daily. 
