Ahead of the July Fourth holiday, there were some reports<\/a> that Donald Trump might help celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial by issuing 250 pardons. That hasn’t yet happened, though the day before Independence Day, the president did sign a new batch of pardons that were controversial in their own right. The New York Times reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The White House announced on Friday that President Trump had issued pardons to 11 men, most of whom had been convicted of crimes related to the Clean Air Act, a bedrock environmental law.<\/p>\n
The president also pardoned Adam Kidan, a major donor to Republicans, including Mr. Trump. He had served about two and a half years in prison for his role in a fraud scheme involving the disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
By way of his social media platform, Trump boasted<\/a> about some of the pardons, writing, “It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for ‘fixing their car.’ While I know this sounds ridiculous, it is nevertheless a fact, and part of the Weaponization and Stupidity that our Country had to endure during four long years of Sleepy Joe Biden. I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!”<\/p>\n
None of this reflected reality. The men the president referred to weren’t convicted of auto repairs; they were convicted of selling or installing truck devices designed to help them pollute more and circumvent the Clean Air Act. What Trump described as “a fact” wasn’t factual in the slightest.<\/p>\n
For that matter, the Republican characterizing enforcement of environmental laws as “weaponization” suggests that he’s effectively rewritten the definition of the word. It now means “punishing people for committing crimes I like.”<\/p>\n
Margo Oge, a former director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the Environmental Protection Agency, told The Washington Post<\/a>“These pardons don’t just forgive a paperwork violation — they reward people who ran businesses stripping pollution controls off diesel trucks for profit. She added that the devices “released far more nitrogen oxides, which worsen asthma and drive up heart attacks and hospitalizations. … That’s the protection these individuals were undermining — clean air we breathe.”<\/p>\n
So much for wanting to “make America healthy again.”<\/p>\n
But just as notable was Trump’s pardon for Kidan, who pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges in 2005. A year later, Kidan was sentenced to almost six years in prison, though he was released in 2009.<\/p>\n
As recently as 2024, the convicted fraudster had become a generous Republican campaign donor<\/a>contributing more than $270,000 to Trump and his affiliated political committees in 2024.<\/p>\n
What’s more, as the Times’ report added, Kidan was ordered to pay $21.7 million in restitution for the crimes to which he pleaded guilty, and it’s not clear whether he paid the full amount. “A pardon typically wipes away any remaining financial obligations,” the article added.<\/p>\n
While Trump seemed eager to brag about his pardon for polluters, he’s said nothing about his clemency for Kidan. It coincided with a separate pardon for Jack Harvard, the former mayor of Plano, Texas, who was also convicted of fraud charges.<\/p>\n
The pardons are notable in their own right, but they’re especially jarring given the White House’s “war on fraud,” which appears to coincide with Trump issuing pardons for people who have been convicted of fraud<\/a>while his administration abandons cases<\/a> against those accused of fraud.<\/p>\n
A couple of months ago, JD Vance held an event at the White House where the vice president talked about the administration’s anti-fraud task force. The Ohio Republican said<\/a> this was a priority because “we have a president who takes fraud seriously.”<\/p>\n
Trump’s pardon record suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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