CNN
—
House Democratic lawmakers released a report Tuesday alleging that President Donald Trump’s federal pardons and clemency grants could wipe away more than $1.3 billion in payments to victims and the federal government.
Trump’s pardons have provoked ire of critics who accuse the president of using the Oval Office to benefit his supporters’ political allies. Those critics, including Democratic members of Congress, say the pardons and grants of clemency wipe out payments made to victims or taxpayers.
The report, which House Judiciary Committee Democrats say is based on the cases of nearly 1,600 people, is based on publicly available court documents and the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website.
But it’s not clear exactly how much, if any, of the $1.3 billion Democrats say was or could be owed by defendants could be collected before the pardons were issued. And some defendants continue to fight the issue in court.
Generally in court, once restitution and fines have been paid by a defendant, it’s not easy for them to claw back that money, even after receiving a presidential pardon.
There have been loopholes, however, that are benefiting some Trump pardon recipients, such as if a defendant was appealing their case at the time of the pardon, or if they were still negotiating financial terms of a settlement, according to court records.
One criminal defendant, electric vehicle startup founder Trevor Milton, skirted having to pay because his restitution amount was being negotiated when he received a pardon from Trump in March, according to court records. Judge Edgardo Ramos had ordered Milton pay restitution, because his victims in an investment scheme had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, his sentencing records say.
Milton’s attorneys told the judge overseeing his case that Trump’s pardon covered “financial aspects of the conviction,” and said the court should even reimburse him a $300 fee he paid.
The Democrats’ report said the Justice Department didn’t provide it with information on how much of $1.3 billion was ever collected.
“The summer interns working for House Democrats must be busy writing and printing pointless letters that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields. “President Trump is righting the wrongs of political prosecutions and providing justice after careful consideration of thoroughly vetted cases presented to him.”
Some of the criticism of Trump’s pardons has focused on defendants charged in relation to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, nearly all of whom were pardoned. The report claims that their pardons wiped out a total of at least $3 million in restitution for beating police officers and ransacking the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors said in court this spring that the DOJ does not intend to return already paid restitution and fine costs following a pardon, especially among January 6 defendants. But some newly pardoned criminal defendants have ongoing legal battles that may give them a reprieve on fines and restitution now.
The department has said in court filings, however, that judges’ restitution orders and the payments defendants make on them are final, once a conviction has been finalized, and cannot be recouped by a convicted defendant without intervention from Congress or higher courts.
That means many January 6 defendants will not get back the $2,000 or more they already paid as restitution to the US Treasury to compensate for damage to the US Capitol building. It would take an act of Congress to return that money to many of the January 6 defendants, court records from the Justice Department also say.
There is a small number of cases in which January 6 defendants’ may be excused from court-ordered restitution and fines.
In the federal court in Washington, DC, where the January 6 defendant’s cases were handled, a handful of Capitol rioters pardoned by Trump are asking judges to order that they should get their restitution payments back.
The Justice Department has supported these requests in court if the defendant had a pending appeal, yet the judges largely haven’t made decisions. The ultimate decider will be the courts, according to documents in the cases of some January 6 rioters.
In one case, of the January 6 defendant John Earle Sullivan, a federal judge last month blocked him from recouping $62,800 he forfeited to the US government because he had earned it by selling footage of the riot.
