Trump Pardons EV Founder Sentenced to Prison

The president says the pardon was ‘highly recommended by many people.’

CEO and founder of Nikola Corp. Trevor Milton attends a news conference to present its new full-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell battery trucks, in Turin, Italy, on Dec. 3, 2019. Massimo Pinca/Reuters

Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle (EV) maker Nikola Corp., who was sentenced to a four-year prison term, said he received a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Milton said he was issued “a full and unconditional pardon,” according to a March 28 post on social media platform X.

“[The president] called me personally to tell me,” he said.

When asked at a news conference the reason for pardoning Milton, Trump said it was “highly recommended by many people.”

“I don’t know him, but they say it was very unfair. And they say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” Trump said.

Among other donations to the Republican party, Milton had given $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee, which raised funds for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s website does not list any clemency granted by Trump to an individual named Trevor Milton as of Friday evening. The last presidential pardon was issued on March 26 for Devon Archer.

In 2020, the hype around Nikola was immense. The entity was valued at $30 billion, exceeding Ford’s market capitalization.

However, Milton resigned that year following reports of fraud, which sent Nikola’s shares crashing. Reports questioned his claims that the company had succeeded in producing 18-wheel, zero-emission trucks.

During the trial accusing him of fraud, prosecutors said a prototype truck shown in a company video was actually a nonfunctioning vehicle that was rolled down a hill.

Prosecutors accused Milton of being untruthful regarding the revolutionary truck, saying it was only a General Motors vehicle stamped with Nikola’s logo.

The company’s CEO also testified in court that Milton was “prone to exaggeration” when presenting the business to investors.

Milton was sentenced to a prison term of four years in December 2023 “for engaging in securities and wire fraud in connection with his scheme to defraud and mislead investors about the development of products and technology by the company he founded,” according to a Dec. 18, 2023, statement from the Justice Department. This was during the tenure of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

It said that between November 2019 and September 2020, Milton promoted Nikola shares by making “false and misleading statements” about the company’s products.

According to the department, Milton lied about creating a “fully functioning” semi-truck prototype called Nikola One despite knowing that it was inoperable. He also made false claims that the company engineered an electric and hydrogen-powered pickup truck even though he “knew that was not true,” it alleged.

Milton also issued misleading statements about Nikola producing hydrogen at a cheap cost despite knowing “that in fact no hydrogen was being produced at all by Nikola, at any cost,” the statement said.

In addition to prison time, Milton was sentenced to three years of supervised release, received a fine of $1 million, and was ordered to forfeit a property located in Utah.

Milton pleaded not guilty in the case. In a Dec. 15, 2021, filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, his lawyers countered the charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, saying the accusations failed to prove that Milton’s statements regarding the products “formed the basis upon which these so-called ‘retail’ investors were allegedly defrauded.”

They said the indictment against Milton lacked any factual allegation that would establish that his “alleged misstatements were made for the purpose of obtaining ‘money or property.’”

Milton’s lawyers criticized the indictment and said it quoted their client “selectively and out of context,” according to another filing made on the same day. “In many instances, the government fails to provide the specific language alleged to be false and misleading, instead paraphrasing Mr. Milton’s words,” the filing said.

The indictment also failed to allege that Milton’s alleged misstatements were “material to a reasonable investor,” the lawyers argued.

In a video published together with the recent X post, Milton said Trump called him to tell him “how much of an injustice this all was, done by the same offices that harassed and prosecuted him [Trump].”

“This pardon is not just about me—it’s about every American who has been railroaded by the government, and unfortunately, that’s a lot of people. It is no wonder why trust and confidence in the Justice Department has eroded to nothing. ... I saw firsthand the tactics they use to guarantee convictions,” Milton said in the post.

Nikola Bankruptcy

On Feb. 19, Nikola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeking authorization to pursue an auction and sale process.

The company has been struggling financially. During the third quarter of 2024, Nikola produced just 83 trucks and recorded a net loss of around $200 million. In the previous quarter, the company suffered $134 million in losses.

“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate,” CEO Steve Girsky said.

While the company tried to raise funds, cut down liabilities, and preserve cash, this proved difficult to achieve, he said.

“The Board has determined that Chapter 11 represents the best possible path forward under the circumstances,” he said.

The company said it intends to “market and sell all, substantially all, or a portion of its assets and effectuate an orderly wind-down of its businesses.”

Nikola plans to continue certain limited service and support operations for trucks that have already been sold until the end of this month. Subsequently, the company will have to partner with other entities for such activities.

Trump Pardons

Meanwhile, Trump has pardoned numerous individuals in the first few months of his second term.

On his first day in office, the president pardoned roughly 1,500 people allegedly involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach while also commuting the sentences of 14 people serving time.

The most recent person to receive Trump’s pardon, Devon Archer, was once a business partner of former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

Archer was convicted in 2018, accused of being part of a fraud scheme targeting pension funds and Native Americans. A federal judge threw out the conviction after finding that Archer had not intended to commit fraud. However, an appeals court overturned the decision.

“Many people have asked me to do this. I think he was treated very unfairly,” Trump said. “And I looked at the records, studied the records, and he was a victim of a crime, as far as I’m concerned. So we’re going to undo that.”