Trump's year-one pardons have erased over $1.5 billion in penalties for fraud and other crimes

In just one year, Donald Trump has used the clemency power to wipe out restitution, fines, and forfeitures totaling over $1.5 billion. This includes sums owed to fraud victims and taxpayers.

During his first year back in office, Donald Trump used his clemency power early and often. On Day 1, he pardoned over 1,500 people involved in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He later pardoned 77 named individuals who engaged in other efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In addition to these mass pardons, Trump has granted 89 more individual pardons, plus 22 commutations.

I’ll be posting here about notable features of Trump’s first-term pardons, focusing today on the financial consequences. Trump’s pardons have been unprecedented in many ways, including the amount of debt they have erased for their beneficiaries. Criminal sentences often include financial penalties, including restitution, fines, and forfeiture. A few notes on terminology:

• Restitution refers to money lost by crime victims that, by law, must be repaid.

• Fines are financial punishments, imposed by a judge, that are paid to the U.S. Treasury (i.e., to taxpayers).

• Forfeiture refers to criminal proceeds (money or property) that, by law, must be surrendered to the U.S. government (for return to the rightful owners or to taxpayers) upon conviction.

• Each of these is a distinct component of a criminal sentence that may accompany a term of imprisonment and/or probation, depending on the circumstances.

Trump’s first-year clemencies have wiped out an unprecedented amount of financial penalties owed by the recipients. To calculate an estimated total, I have reviewed the information publicly available through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, plus the additional information available in relevant court records. Based on all available information, I have calculated that Trump’s clemency grants have forgiven financial penalties (including fines, restitution, and forfeitures) totaling approximately $1.56 billion. Yes, that’s billion with a “B.”

[Note: I have included in this total those commutations, as well as pardons, that have forgiven financial penalties. Typically, commutations leave financial penalties intact. However, many of Trump’s commutations expressly state that they extinguish all financial components of the sentence, in addition to any term of imprisonment and/or supervision.]

I consider this $1.56 billion figure a conservative estimate, because I have excluded some cases in which the amounts were not readily calculable (for example, those cases in which a pardon preceded a conviction in court), cases in which sums less than $10,000 were owed, and some very dated cases. I have also not endeavored to compute the total restitution owed by the January 6 defendants, although some of them have been refunded restitution owed for damage caused.

Just one year into his term, this figure already far surpasses the financial penalties extinguished by Trump’s predecessors. By comparison, Joe Biden granted 80 individual pardons during his four-year term. His pardon recipients had a total of approximately $688,000 in financial penalties. I also note that, most of the convictions of Biden’s pardon recipients were quite dated compared to the convictions pardoned by Trump. It is therefore much more likely that their financial obligations had been paid prior to the pardon and that the sums will not be returned.

My detailed calculations are available here in my Pardon Trackers, a feature for my paid subscribers. I will be rolling out some additional pardon analysis for paid subscribers in the Pardon Trackers soon. Many thanks to all of you who have become paid subscribers to support my work, I am truly so appreciative!