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In a political thunderclap reverberating through Washington, President Donald J. Trump has reportedly issued a sweeping pardon to 77 individuals, including his longtime ally Rudy Giuliani and lawyers John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, all accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election results.

The news broke late Sunday when Ed Martin, Trump’s pardon attorney, shared a document on his personal X account — later reposted officially — showing a presidential proclamation signed Friday. The order grants clemency for “certain offenses related to the 2020 presidential election,” effectively shielding a host of attorneys and advisers ensnared in election interference probes.

A Blanket of Forgiveness That Stretches Nationwide

The document doesn’t stop with the 77 names listed. It extends the pardon to “all United States citizens” involved in any capacity with alternate elector efforts, investigations into voting irregularities, or actions taken to “expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities” tied to the 2020 race.

In the document, Trump declares:

“I, Donald J. Trump, do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate of Presidential electors... in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election.”

However, the proclamation adds one conspicuous exclusion:

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

Among those named were former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro. The sweeping wording, legal experts note, appears designed to blanket nearly every figure accused of helping orchestrate alternate elector schemes in battleground states.

A Tangle of Legal Battles — And Mixed Fates

The pardons arrive after years of fractured legal outcomes for Trump’s legal inner circle. New York disbarred Giuliani and Chesebro over ethics violations. California stripped Eastman of his right to practice law and recommended full disbarment, while Texas declined to discipline Powell.

Meanwhile, Chesebro, who pled guilty to filing false documents in Georgia, faces suspension across multiple states, and Ellis avoided prosecution in Arizona by agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

The Georgia election interference case — once a cornerstone of Trump’s legal peril — has faltered since Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case. In Michigan, a federal judge dismissed criminal claims against alleged “fake electors” in September.

White House: ‘Great Americans Persecuted for Democracy’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the pardoned individuals as “great Americans” persecuted by the Biden administration for defending democratic principles.

“They were put through hell for questioning an election — which is the very cornerstone of democracy,” Leavitt said, calling their prosecution “something that happens in communist Venezuela.”

A separate White House official echoed that states lack the jurisdiction to prosecute federal election conduct, referencing the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon certification dispute in Hawaii, where alternate electors were submitted but never prosecuted.

“The alternate electors for Kennedy did not face prosecution,” the spokesperson noted. “Neither should these Americans.”

Trump’s Expanding Clemency Record

The Trump Pardons Giuliani move is only the latest in a string of controversial clemencies since Trump’s return to office. Last month, he pardoned Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, who had been convicted of failing to maintain anti–money laundering controls.

He also commuted the seven-year sentence of former Rep. George Santos, convicted of falsifying fundraising reports and expelled from Congress after facing 23 criminal counts, including wire fraud and identity theft.

Since the start of his second term, Trump’s clemency spree has included white-collar figures such as former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, and reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley.

Echoes of January 6: The Largest Pardon in Modern History

Perhaps Trump’s most polarizing act of clemency remains his decision to pardon all 1,500 individuals convicted for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling them “patriots who stood up for fair elections.”

Now, with his latest proclamation, the president has effectively extended that umbrella of absolution over nearly every figure tied to post-election legal fallout.

Whether this sweeping Trump Pardons Giuliani decree marks the end of years of election-related prosecutions — or ignites a new wave of constitutional clashes — remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: in Trump’s second term, the power of pardon has become his sharpest political weapon yet.