President Donald Trump granted pardons to 77 MAGA allies, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who were linked to a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Pardons Tied To ‘Fake Electors’ Plot
The list of those pardoned was published by Trump’s Pardon Attorney Ed Martin on X, late Sunday.
The pardons were related to the “fake electors” plot, wherein the individuals pardoned were allegedly involved in a plan to establish alternative slates of electors from key states won by then-President Joe Biden, including Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan.
That scheme, allegedly backed by Trump and his top allies, ultimately culminated in his supporters’ attempt to block the certification of the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, a political rally spiraling into a violent mob assaulting and laying siege to the U.S. Capitol for several hours.
Those pardoned included Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mark Meadows, and several 2020 campaign aides accused of sending false elector lists from three states to Congress in an effort to keep Trump in power.
“This pardon does not apply to the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” the line at the end of the pardon order statement said.
Trump Ties To Giuliani
Giuliani, a former Mayor of New York City, has been a prominent figure in Trump’s legal team. He was at the forefront of the legal battle to overturn the 2020 election results, which led to a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit was settled in September 2025.
Trump hailed Giuliani as the “greatest Mayor in the history of New York City” and announced his decision to award Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.
Earlier in September, Trump demanded answers from former FBI Director Christopher Wray after a Blaze report claimed that 274 undercover FBI agents were present during the January 6 Capitol riot, contradicting a Justice Department Inspector General report that denied any such presence.
In a Truth Social post, Trump accused the FBI of secretly deploying agents “against all rules” and called for their identification and a full account of their actions that day.
Trump’s Controversial Pardons
This development is the latest addition to the list of Trump’s previous presidential pardons which have drawn heavy backlash.
Trump defended his controversial pardon of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, arguing that the Biden administration had treated him unfairly. Democratic senators, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), condemned the move, calling it an example of corruption tied to Binance’s $2 billion investment in Trump-linked World Liberty Financial.
The criticism follows Trump’s earlier pardons of BitMEX’s three co-founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, who had pled guilty to money laundering and regulatory violations.
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