{"id":254469,"date":"2026-07-29T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254469\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:54:09","slug":"megadonor-received-trump-pardon-three-days-after-donation-to-pennsylvania-congressman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254469\/","title":{"rendered":"Megadonor Received Trump Pardon Three Days After Donation to Pennsylvania Congressman"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump recently pardoned<\/a> a major Republican donor three days after the man \u2014 a key figure<\/a> in the Jack Abramoff fraud and lobbying scandal \u2014 made a political donation to Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pennsylvania), who\u2019s facing one of the nation\u2019s most contested House races.<\/p>\n

The megadonor, Adam Kidan, donated $2,600<\/a> to Mackenzie\u2019s leadership PAC on June 30, according to Federal Election Commission records. Trump traveled to Mackenzie\u2019s eastern Pennsylvania district<\/a> on June 23 to campaign<\/a> with him. The president pardoned Kidan on July 3.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie\u2019s office told NOTUS that the Republican congressman did not speak with the White House or Trump about the pardon, but it declined to answer questions about whether the congressman intends to keep Kidan\u2019s donation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Mackenzie has never advocated for a pardon from the President on anyone\u2019s behalf,\u201d Mackenzie spokesperson Arnaud Armstrong said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The White House and Kidan did not respond to NOTUS\u2019 requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie faces<\/a> Democratic challenger Bob Brooks<\/a> to represent Pennsylvania\u2019s 7th Congressional District in what the Cook Political Report ranks<\/a> as a \u201ctoss-up\u201d race.<\/p>\n

In an email to NOTUS, Brooks campaign manager Jenna Kaufman said: \u201cThree days after a convicted fraudster cut Ryan Mackenzie a massive campaign check, that same fraudster walked away with a presidential pardon. That is corruption in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kidan, who served about two-and-a-half years in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud, has donated millions to Republican causes over the years. He gave around $270,000 to Trump-affiliated committees during the 2024 election cycle, according to federal records, and has hosted fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"AdamKidan\"<\/p>\n

Adam Kidan, a former business partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, arrives at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Dec. 15, 2005. Kidan pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy and mail fraud. (AP Photo\/ Lynne Sladky)
\n Lynne Sladky\/AP\n <\/p>\n

He has also contributed to a number of Republican campaigns throughout the 2026 midterms, including donations in 2025 to three swing-district House members from Pennsylvania: Rob Bresnahan, Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry. He has also supported Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity\u2019s bid for governor in the state.<\/p>\n

In April, Kidan donated $7,231 to former Rep. Mike Rogers\u2019 Senate bid in Michigan, $3,500 to Rep. Zach Nunn\u2019s reelection in Iowa and $22,445 to Rep. Jim Jordan\u2019s joint fundraising committee in Ohio, federal records show.<\/p>\n

Kidan\u2019s donation to Mackenzie\u2019s leadership PAC is his most recent federal political contribution on record, FEC records indicate.<\/p>\n

As part of his sentencing, Kidan and Abramoff were ordered to pay a total of $217 million in restitution. It\u2019s unclear whether Kidan paid the full amount, and Trump\u2019s pardon is likely to erase any remaining financial obligations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump recently pardoned a major Republican donor three days after the man \u2014 a key figure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-254469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}