NZ Herald Morning News Update | At least 8 people dead in central Delhi car explosion, and Trump pardons allies involved in attempt to subvert 2020 election.
US President Donald Trump has granted sweeping pardons to top allies accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election, the administration’s pardon attorney Ed Martin has said.
Martin shared a list on X of more than 70 people, including the President’s former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and Trump’sformer chief of staff Mark Meadows, who were granted “full, complete and unconditional” pardons.
The names on the list were embroiled in a scheme to alter slates of electors in battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, which Joe Biden had secured in his successful 2020 presidential run.
That plot, supported by Trump and his allies, helped fuel a demonstration that turned into a rioting mob attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
None of those named in the four-page pardons missive were charged on the federal level, but the directive could prevent future administrations from prosecuting the alleged co-conspirators.
US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other allies have been granted "full, complete and unconditional" pardons. They had been accused of attempting to subvert the 2020 election. Photo / Getty Images
The names also include John Eastman, a lawyer who proposed strategies to prevent the certification of the election results, and longtime Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Trump has long insisted he has the power to pardon himself for federal crimes, but he has yet to put the theory to the test.
In the missive granting pardons for actions “in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election” or relating to “efforts to expose voting fraud,” Trump said that “this pardon does not apply to the President of the United States”.
