Trump’s Pardon Attorney Mulls Clemency for Fake Electors—Dead or Alive
Mother Jones illustration; Craig Hudson for the Washington Post/Getty
The Trump administration’s new chief pardon attorney is considering a plan to grant clemency to dozens of so-called fake electors who aided Donald Trump in his scheme to overturn the 2020 election, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.
Ed Martin—the failed US attorney nominee whom Trump recently named to a different high-level role in the Justice Department—is working on a plan to recommend federal pardons for all these reputed Trump electors, despite the fact that none have been charged with federal crimes. The move would be part of the larger campaign to remove the stain of Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election, an effort that has included the president’s mass pardons of January 6 rioters.
The person familiar with the plan said these possible pardons have not yet been approved by the White House. But they are part of a swirl of activity by Martin, a former far-right activist and “Stop the Steal” organizer.
Less than three weeks into his new job, Martin has already played a role in 17 pardons and eight commutations signed by Trump. Among the recipients was a convicted tax cheat whose mother is a major Trump fundraiser, who attended a $1 million dinner with the president a few weeks earlier. Martin, meanwhile, has sat for a slew of interviews, mostly with right-wing venues, in which he has outlined plans to investigate matters such as the conduct of January 6 prosecutions, allegations that then-President Joe Biden improperly issued pardons using an autopen, unspecified claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the © Mother Jones
