Several Congressional Democrats Call for Trump to Be Pardoned

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) arrives for President Joe Biden's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 7, 2023. Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

Several congressional Democrats, including a former member of the House Democratic leadership, this week called for President-elect Donald Trump to be pardoned.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the former House Democratic majority whip, responded to a question on MSNBC about whether Trump should be pardoned by President Joe Biden.

“Yes, I do think so,” the longtime congressman told the outlet. “And I think he should pardon all of those people that have been accused and have been targeted so we can clean the slate and have an air of possibilities for the future.”

“If we keep digging up things of the past, I’m not too sure the country would not lose its way,” Clyburn said, while also defending Biden’s decision this month to pardon his son Hunter for two federal convictions.

Biden could pardon Trump in connection with two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith—one in Washington, which pertains to alleged crimes after the 2020 election, and the other in Florida, where Trump faced charges of improperly retaining classified documents.

Smith has since dropped the Washington case and also dropped his appeal of a federal judge’s July decision to toss the Florida case.

Trump was never convicted in either case and had pleaded not guilty in both.

On Dec. 10, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) wrote on Truth Social that Trump should be pardoned in his New York criminal case.

In the post, Fetterman compared the New York business records case against Trump to Hunter Biden’s federal gun and tax convictions. Alongside pardons for the two cases, the outgoing president also pardoned his son for any other potential criminal activity between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.

“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman said in his post.

Fetterman, elected to the upper congressional chamber in 2022, appears to be the first Democratic senator to call for a pardon for Trump. It also appears Fetterman is the first Democratic senator to join Truth Social, a social media company started in 2022 by Trump that carries many of the president-elect’s official statements on policies, appointments, and his criminal cases.

A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty in May of this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments he made during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump had pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that they were politically motivated and designed to interfere with the 2024 election.

Because the case was brought by the state and based on state law, rather than federal law, Biden cannot pardon Trump in that case; only the governor of New York can.

After the Manhattan conviction in May, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a brief statement at the time that “no one is above the law.” Since then, the Democratic governor has made no public statements indicating whether she would be open to pardoning the president-elect.

While sentencing was postponed indefinitely last month by the judge overseeing the case, the conviction against Trump stands. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, in a court filing unsealed on Dec. 10, suggested the president-elect could receive a non-incarceration sentence or that his sentencing could wait until he leaves office.

“The People acknowledge the importance of an orderly executive transition and the peaceful transfer of power, but those interests do not require the extraordinary step of abating post-trial motion practice in a pre-existing criminal case,” the filing from the district attorney’s office said.

Other than Fetterman and Clyburn, at least one Democratic lawmaker has called for Trump to be pardoned.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) wrote on social media in June that Hochul should pardon the president-elect “for the good of the country.”

“It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost,” Phillips said after Trump’s conviction in May.

A former Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), also called for Biden to pardon Trump during a CNN interview earlier in December.

“What I would have done differently, and my recommendation as a counsel would have been, ‘Why don’t you go ahead and pardon Donald Trump, for all his charges?'” Manchin said.

The Epoch Times contacted Hochul’s office for comment on Dec. 11.