Trump pardons Giuliani and allies over bid to overturn 2020 election

Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others accused of trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

The president’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows was also pardoned, alongside conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman, a Justice Department official revealed.

Ed Martin, the government‘s pardon attorney, posted a signed proclamation of the “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon on social media.

The pardon explicitly does not extend to Mr Trump, according to the proclamation.

Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes, and none of those pardoned were charged in federal cases.

But pardons can be pre-emptive, taking effect before legal proceedings have started.

Mr Trump has long disputed the results of the 2020 presidential race, which saw Joe Biden elected president.

But the move underscores President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to promote the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him even though courts around the country and U.S. officials found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome.

Mr Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, was prominent among those resisting the result, making multiple false fraud allegations in a bid to overturn the outcome.

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Among them were claims about rigged voting machines, polling place fraud, and an international communist conspiracy.

He famously broadcast his claims in a press conference at the premises of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a small gardening business in Philadelphia, just days after the vote.

Mr Giuliani, along with Ms Powell and Mr Eastman, are thought to be among the unindicted co-conspirators alluded to in the 2020 federal case of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump.

However they were not named in the original indictment.

Their pardon states that this proclamation would end “a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation”.

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The document, which Mr Martin posted on X, lists the names of the pardoned over several pages.

It comes after Trump last week pardoned baseball star Darryl Strawberry, who previously appeared on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.

The White House said the former outfielder had “served time and paid back taxes” after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

The White House did not immediately respond to an email from the Press Association seeking comment.