US President Donald Trump has pardoned former New York City Mayor and former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, his former chief of staff during his first term as president Mark Meadows and others accused of supporting Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the Associated Press reported, citing a US Department of Justice official.
Ed Martin, the government's clemency lawyer, posted a signed proclamation on social media for a "full, complete and unconditional" pardon, which also mentions the names of conservative lawyers Sidney Powell and John Eastman. The proclamation, posted online late last night, explicitly states that the pardon does not apply to Trump.
Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes, and none of Trump's allies have been charged with such crimes. The pardons, however, underscore Trump's efforts to continue rewriting the history of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, the AP notes.
The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the case.
Among those pardoned are Republicans who acted as fake voters for Trump in 2020 and were charged in state-level cases with filing false certificates to try to confirm they were legitimate voters, despite Biden's victory in the states in question.
The proclamation describes the efforts to prosecute those involved in the attempts to overturn the 2020 election results as a "grave national injustice committed against the American people" and states that the pardons are intended to continue the "process of national reconciliation". AP notes.