Trump’s pardon followed others in cases where he accused the Justice Department of overzealous prosecution, including about 1,600 people charged in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
President Donald Trump pardons around 1,500 Jan. 6 attack defendants
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Reuters
- Trump pardoned former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of bribery in what prosecutors called a “cash-for-badges” scheme.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump pardoned a former Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery in what prosecutors called a “cash-for-badges scheme,” preventing him from starting his 10-year prison sentence on May 27.
Former Culpepper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins was convicted in December for accepting at least $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing Northern Virginia business executives as auxiliary deputies.
Then-acting U.S. Zachary Lee said when Jenkins was sentenced in March “he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme.”
Jenkins appealed for assistance directly to Trump during a webinar in April hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, according to the NBC News affiliate in Washington, D.C. “I believe wholeheartedly in the president,” Jenkins said.
Trump said on social media May 26 that Jenkins was the victim of an “overzealous Biden Justice Department” and a judge appointed by former President Joe Biden, U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou.
“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump wrote. “He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’”