The Justice Department confirmed the clemency of close advisers to Donald Trump and activists accused of efforts to delegitimize and overturn the election late Monday, after Ed Martin, the department’s pardon attorney, circulated the proclamation on social media.
The pardons apply only to federal offenses, a constraint that renders the move largely symbolic for many of the recipients, who still face active state-level investigations. The list begins with Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer, followed by John Eastman, the attorney who crafted legal theories for contesting the results; Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; Boris Epshteyn, a close strategist; and Sidney Powell, whose lawsuits advanced some of the most extravagant claims of election fraud.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt praised the pardoned figures as “great Americans,” arguing they had been persecuted “by the Biden administration for challenging an election.”
The order also covers local organizers who submitted false elector certificates to Congress asserting Trump had carried states won by Biden. Their state prosecutions continue. The sweeping language—“full, complete and unconditional”—appears engineered to head off any future federal charges arising from the postelection maneuvering. It may also inadvertently shield lawmakers who pressured Vice President Mike Pence not to certify Biden’s victory.
The timing remains opaque. Trump signed the documents last Friday, according to aides, though the proclamation itself bears no date. Advisers say discontent among Trump’s supporters has grown over unfulfilled promises of relief for January 6 defendants—a frustration compounded by a recent Blaze report alleging, without corroboration, that a former Capitol Police officer was responsible for the pipe bombs discovered near party headquarters on January 5, 2021.
Complaints from convicted rioters and their lawyers note that compensation claims against the Justice Department have stalled.
Giuliani, Powell, Epshteyn, and Eastman escaped federal indictment but were referenced as uncharged co-conspirators in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2023 case accusing Trump of obstructing the transfer of power. Jeffrey Clark, a former senior Justice Department official who amplified Trump’s fraud narrative, also received a pardon; he, too, appeared as an unindicted participant until a Supreme Court immunity ruling foreclosed federal liability for official acts, according to The New York Times.
Giuliani led the postelection campaign, traveling between battleground states to argue the contest had been “stolen” and that Biden’s victory was illegitimate. The consequences accumulated. New York disbarred him in 2024 after a judge found he had “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.” A federal jury later ordered him to pay $148 million for defaming two Georgia election workers whom he falsely accused of manipulating ballots. His bankruptcy petition collapsed over disclosure failures. Both he and Powell settled separate defamation suits brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
Powell’s litigation barrage drew a 2021 sanction from a federal magistrate, who condemned her filings as “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” citing her claims of a “deep-state” conspiracy involving Venezuelan agents and financier George Soros.
Parallel state prosecutions continue. Giuliani, Epshteyn, Meadows, and Eastman face Arizona charges alleging they conspired to pressure county officials into certifying Trump as the winner there. The case remains bogged down in procedural disputes.
