{"id":36956,"date":"2025-11-12T11:23:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/36956\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T11:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:23:48","slug":"trump-pardons-trail-runner-who-took-prohibited-detour-as-he-ran-up-and-down-wyomings-grand-teton-in-record-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/36956\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pardons trail runner who took prohibited detour as he ran up and down Wyoming\u2019s Grand Teton in record time"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump on Monday pardoned a trail runner who took a brief detour on a prohibited trail while attempting to break a record running up and down the tallest peak in the Teton Range of Wyoming.<\/p>\n

Michelino Sunseri, 33, ran up and down the 13,775-foot-tall Grand Teton peak on Sept. 2, 2024, in a record-shattering 2 hours, 50 minutes, 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"ManPresident Donald Trump pardoned Michelino Sunseri, a runner who took a brief detour on a prohibited trail while attempting to break a record on the Grand Teton peak. Michelino Sunseri\/Instagram<\/p>\n

On his way down, Sunseri used a shortcut to avoid casual hikers, but going off-trail in a national park is prohibited due to concerns of erosion.<\/p>\n

Sunseri was convicted of a misdemeanor in September for taking the frowned-upon cut-through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u2026 the trail trial of the century is officially over,\u201d Sunseri posted on Facebook<\/a> after being granted clemency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an unbelievable twist that even Hollywood couldn\u2019t write, I woke up this morning to find out I\u2019ve been given a PRESIDENTIAL PARDON from Donald J. Trump \u2014 over the Grand Teton FKT and my use of the Old Climber\u2019s Trail,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis case was a massive waste of taxpayer money and government energy from the start,\u201d Sunseri wrote. \u201cUnfortunately, instead of working with me, the system tried to make an example of me.\u2063\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichelinoSunseri was convicted of a misdemeanor in September for taking the frowned-upon shortcut. AP<\/p>\n

Before his pardon, prosecutors had agreed to seek dismissal of his case if Sunseri completed 60 hours of community service and a course on wilderness stewardship, according to the runner\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled that Michelino\u2019s nightmare is over, but we\u2019re not done fighting against unconstitutional regulations that give low-level park officials the power to criminalize harmless conduct,\u201d Michael Poon, an attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation, which helped in Sunseri\u2019s legal defense, said in a statement. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are\u00a0ready to help\u00a0other Americans who face criminal prosecution for breaking park rules that were illegally created,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The pardon appeared entirely apolitical. <\/p>\n

Just days before, Trump pardoned 77 individuals tied to a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election,<\/a> including several of his political allies, his pardon attorney revealed late Sunday.<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.<\/p>\n

With Post wires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump on Monday pardoned a trail runner who took a brief detour on a prohibited trail while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,21599,9,11,10,9335,21600,58,21601],"class_list":["post-36956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-donald-trump","tag-mountains","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pardons","tag-records","tag-us-news","tag-wyoming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}