Trump pardoned a tax evasionist, after his mother donated a million dollars / leniency and a closed sheriff for taking bribes

In the first few months of mandate, the president has already pardoned around 1,500 people charged for the 2021 chapter attack, plus several dozen people, convicted for various crimes, write New York Times and CBS.

President Donald Trump was pardoning Paul Walczak, a man who pleaded guilty for tax offenses, one month after his mother participated in an important fundraising for the president, writes The New York Times.

According to the American daily, a pardon request made during the investment of the new president referred to Walczak's mother's efforts, Elizabeth Fago, to support Trump and other Republicans – and claimed that Fago's political activity actually motivated Walczak's criminal prosecution.

Fago later participated in a fundraising dinner at Mar-A-Lago, at a cost of one million dollars per person, according to Times, and Walczak was pardoned less than three weeks later.

The decision raises new question marks regarding the lemon measures taken by Trump, who already pardoned almost all the defendants involved in the insurrection of January 6 – about 1,500 accused about the attack on the Capitol of 2021 – on his first day at the White House, writes New York Times.

Walczak bought a yacht out of employee tax money

Walczak pleaded guilty in November, shortly after Trump's choice, for non -payment of work tax and not presenting individual income statements, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Walczak had entered his mother in a business with homes for the elderly and took over the position of executive director. After selling the company in 2007, the two invested $ 18 million in a new similar business in Florida.

Until 2011, according to prosecutors, Walczak stopped paying taxes.

Between 2016 and 2019, prosecutors said, he detained over $ 10 million from the salaries of nurses, doctors and other people who worked in his clinics, under the pretext that he will use them to pay social insurance, medicine and income federal taxes.

Instead, he used some of the money to buy a $ 2 million yacht and to pay for travelers and purchases of luxury goods, prosecutors said.

At the beginning of April, Walczak was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to which were added two years of conditional release, under supervision, and was ordered to pay a compensation of over $ 4 million.

His pardon exempts him from both the execution of the sentence and the payment of taxes.

According to the New York Times, Fago helped organize at least three fundraising for Trump's campaign and participated in events of such in both Trump's investments.

A sheriff convicted for bribery, released from prison

On Monday, Trump made a controversial gesture. He granted an unconditional pardon to a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of federal fraud and bribery, writes CBS.

Scott Jenkins was a sheriff of the Culpeper County in northern Virginia for 12 years, being chosen in 2011 and re -elected twice.

In 2024, a jury found guilty of accepting more than $ 75,000 in the form of bribery in exchange for the appointment of several businessmen in northern Virginia as auxiliary deputies of the sheriff in his office.

In March 2025, Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

According to prosecutors, Jenkins accepted bribes from at least eight people, including two undercover FBI agents, in the form of cash and electoral contributions.

Prosecutors claim that, on the other hand, he has issued official badges and cards, allowing people to avoid traffic fines and carry firearms without a permit.

In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump defended Jenkins, calling him a “victim of a too zealous justice department” during Joe Biden's presidency. Trump said Jenkins “isn't worth to spend a day in prison.”

Trump also criticized the judge who supervised the case.

Other pardons

Beyond the pardons of the defendants for the insurrection of January 6, Trump has already pardoned over 30 people in the first four months of the second term.

Among those who benefited from leniency are Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the illegal drug market Silk Road, and the former Democratic Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of federal corruption charges.

In March, Trump piled three co-founders of the Bitmex cryptocurrency scholarship, who pleaded guilty in 2022 for violations of the law on bank secret.