Despite his alleged ‘war on fraud,’ Trump keeps pardoning convicted fraudsters

Ahead of the July 4th holiday, there were some reports 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:

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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.

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.

By way of his social media platform, Trump boasted 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!”

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” w asn’t factual in the slightest.

For that matter, the Republican characterizing enforcement of environmental laws as “weaponization” suggests he’s effectively rewritten the definition of the word. It now means “punishing people for committing crimes I like.”

Margo Oge, a former director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told The Washington Post, “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.”

So much for wanting to “make America healthy again.”

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 nearly six years in prison, though he was released in 2009.

As recently as 2024, the convicted fraudster became a generous Republican campaign donor, contributing more than $270,000 to Trump and his affiliated political committees in 2024.