Topline
President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen people this week including a woman who had a fraud conviction commuted by the president in 2021, according to multiple outlets, marking the latest pardons handed out by Trump in his second term.
The pardons were handed down Thursday.
Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty ImagesKey Facts
White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson said in an X post Trump granted clemency to 21 people Thursday.
Adriana Camberos: Convicted in 2017 of selling millions of counterfeit 5-Hour Energy bottles to grocers, she had her sentence commuted by Trump in 2021, and was pardoned by the president this week for a separate 2024 fraud conviction, according to Bloomberg, which noted her brother, Andres, was also convicted in 2024 and was pardoned Thursday.
Julio Herrera Velutini: A Venezuelan-Italian banker charged with conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud over allegations he tried to bribe former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, was also pardoned, The New York Times reported (Velutini’s daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $2.5 million to Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in late 2024, according to the Times, which said a White House official denied the donations contributed to her father’s pardon).
Vázquez was also pardoned by Trump this week after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges last year, with the White House claiming the charges were rooted in political motivations, according to CNN.
Mark Rossini: A former FBI agent and consultant for Herrera who pleaded guilty alongside his old boss and Vázquez, was pardoned by the president.
Terren Peizer: A former health care CEO received a pardon for a 2024 insider trading conviction that carried a 42-month prison sentence, Bloomberg added.
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Big Number
More than 1,800. That is how many people Trump granted clemency for in the first year of his second term. The vast majority of that figure was from the over 1,500 people convicted or charged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack and later pardoned by the president.
Key Background
Trump has justified many of his pardons and commutations (see a full list here) by claiming the sentences given to the convicted were unfair, often placing blame on the Biden administration and what the Trump administration has called its “weaponized” Justice Department. But Trump has also notably pardoned a long list of political donors and allies—including lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and others accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 election—raising ethical questions and sparking wide criticism. Like Camberos, other people who have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Trump have found themselves in trouble with the law afterward. One Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by the president was arrested on multiple child sexual abuse charges last November and has since pleaded not guilty. Another pardoned capitol rioter was arrested in October for allegedly threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Further Reading
January 6 rioter who was pardoned by Trump arrested for child sexual abuse (The Guardian)