Trump Pardons Giuliani, Meadows, and Other Co-Conspirators in 2020 Election Coup Attempt

As Americans and lawmakers grapple with the ongoing government shutdown, President Donald Trump quietly issued pardons for Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and several other key allies accused of helping him try to overturn the 2020 election.

The late-Sunday announcement came in the form of a signed proclamation shared online by Ed Martin, the government’s pardon attorney. The document declared a “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon for a list of Trump loyalists that included Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer; Meadows, his former chief of staff; Sidney Powell, who spread baseless election conspiracy theories; John Eastman, the architect of Trump’s fake elector plan; and Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official who tried to help Trump stay in power.

The proclamation pointedly excluded Trump himself, even as it described the prosecutions of his allies as “a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people.” The pardons, it claimed, were meant to continue “the process of national reconciliation.”

This sweeping act of clemency underscores Trump’s relentless push to rewrite the story of the 2020 election. Despite losing dozens of court challenges and facing repeated rejections from his own Justice Department officials, Trump has continued to promote the fiction that the election was stolen from him. His new round of pardons comes on the heels of earlier mass pardons for hundreds of January 6 rioters, including some convicted of attacking police officers at the Capitol.

None of the newly pardoned figures had faced federal charges related to the 2020 election—presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes—but that hasn’t stopped Trump from using the power symbolically, if not legally. It’s a political message, not just an act of mercy.

Several of those pardoned, including Giuliani and Meadows, were charged by state prosecutors for their roles in efforts to overturn the election results. Those cases, however, have either stalled or fallen apart entirely. Just months ago, a Michigan judge dismissed charges against 15 Republicans accused of posing as fake electors for Trump.

Giuliani’s fall has been particularly brutal. Once celebrated as “America’s Mayor” for his leadership after 9/11, he became one of the loudest voices pushing Trump’s false voter-fraud claims after the 2020 loss. He’s since been disbarred in both Washington, D.C., and New York, and last year, he was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two Georgia election workers he defamed while amplifying those false claims.

John Eastman, another name on Trump’s pardon list, drafted the now-infamous memo that urged then–Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of Joe Biden’s victory on January 6. Eastman’s legal theories became the blueprint for the pressure campaign that helped lead to the Capitol riot.

And then there’s Jeffrey Clark, the mid-level Justice Department official who nearly triggered a constitutional crisis by attempting to use DOJ authority to cast doubt on state election results.

Trump himself had faced federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of conspiring to overturn the election. But those charges were dropped after Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in November, following long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

The new pardons send a clear signal: Trump isn’t retreating from his claims about 2020. He’s doubling down—and rewriting history on his own terms.

To his supporters, it’s another act of defiance. To his critics, it’s a dangerous step toward erasing accountability for one of the darkest chapters in modern American democracy.

Either way, it’s unmistakable—Donald Trump is once again using the power of the presidency not just to protect his allies, but to vindicate his version of the truth.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.