Politics

Trump Pardons Dozens of His Top 2020 Allies

‘NO MAGA LEFT BEHIND’

The pardoned people were involved in attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Sidney Powell, Mark Meadows, Boris Epshteyn, Ruy Giuliani
Getty Images

Donald Trump has pardoned a roll call of his allies who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The 77-person list was shared by Department of Justice attorney Ed Martin in an X post titled, “Important pardon of Alternate Electors of 2020!!”

Martin, who was appointed by Trump to serve as the DOJ’s pardon attorney and has been tasked with rooting out “weaponization” at the department, posted an undated presidential proclamation claiming to grant “full, complete and unconditional” pardons were granted to former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, and conservative attorney Sidney Powell, among others.

The people on the list were involved in attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden by submitting the names of fake electors from four states to Congress.

Rudy Giuliani attends the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on September 11, 2025 in New York City.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is among those handed a presidential pardon by Donald Trump. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The pardons were largely symbolic because none of the people on the list have been charged with federal crimes, only state crimes, which the president does not have the power to pardon.

The pardons, however, are red meat for Trump’s base, and show that the president is still actively trying to rewrite the history of the 2020 election, Politico reported.

Martin shared the list in the replies to a post he had written in May that said, “No MAGA left behind.”

They also protect against any federal charges that could be brought if Democrats win the White House in 2028.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” Trump wrote.

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks during a news conference with Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, about lawsuits contesting the results of the presidential election at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday Nov. 19, 2020.
Sidney Powell speaks in November 2020 about lawsuits contesting the results of the presidential election. The Washington Post/Getty Images

Dozens of people on the pardon list have been charged in state investigations into the fake electors scheme, including cases brought in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada, Politico reported.

None of the state cases—which have been plagued by procedural gridlock and appellate review—have made it to trial, but prosecutors are still trying to push forward with them, the outlet reported in August.

On his first day in office, Trump also pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of more than 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop Congress from certifying the election results.

The Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot
Several of the Jan. 6 rioters that President Trump pardoned have been charged with new crimes. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Since then, several have been re-arrested on suspicion of committing or threatening to commit violent crimes.

The president has also issued a series of controversial pardons for wealthy convicts such as crypto billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who has been connected to the Trump family’s crypto ventures, and a tax cheat whose mother attended a $1 million per plate fundraising dinner with the president at his private club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.

The latest proclamation specifically says that the pardons do not cover the president himself, despite Trump’s repeated untested claims that, legally, he could do so.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.