In Symbolic Move, Trump Pardons 77 Allies Who Tried to Steal 2020 Election for Him

President Donald Trump has pardoned a massive slate of prominent allies who supported plans to subvert the 2020 presidential election, according to Ed Martin, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) pardon attorney.

The pardons are largely symbolic. Presidential pardons only apply to federal charges, and none of those identified in the proclamation released by Martin on social media late Sunday were charged with federal crimes.

Still, they are Trump’s latest move to reward, absolve or protect those who backed his attempt to remain in power after losing the election. The effort culminated in the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Among the 77 people receiving “full, complete and unconditional” pardons were former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official who attempted to use the powers of the department to overturn election results.

State-level charges are still pending against Giuliani, Meadows and several others on the list, including some of those who helped carry out Trump’s fake electors plot. As part of the scheme, Republican officials and Trump associates across seven states signed false electoral certificates claiming that Trump won the election in their states.

Currently, state prosecutions related to 2020 subversion schemes are ongoing in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.

On his personal social media account, Martin announced the pardons by replying to one of his posts from earlier this year reading, “No MAGA left behind.”

The proclamation is remarkably broad, claiming to pardon “all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting activities, participation in or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors … in connection with the 2o2o Presidential Election, as well for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election.”

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

Though Trump has long claimed the president can pardon himself, Sunday’s proclamation specified that it did not apply to Trump.

“This pardon does not apply to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” it reads.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned over 1,000 people who were convicted or charged for their actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Taking orders from Trump, the DOJ has been attempting to intervene in state convictions of people who helped Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Led by Martin, the department has attempted to secure relief for Tina Peters, a former Republican clerk of Mesa, Colorado, who was found guilty last year on state charges of participating in a scheme to prove Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020, according to CNN.