Trump’s Quiet Clemency: Pardoning the 2020 Election Architects Amid Unprosecuted Shadows

In a move as understated as it is sweeping, President Donald Trump issued pardons over the weekend to 77 individuals accused of orchestrating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election—topping the list with his former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

The proclamation, signed November 7 and quietly posted to X by Pardon Attorney Ed Martin late Sunday, extends “full, complete, and unconditional” clemency to figures like former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman, and dozens of Republican “alternate electors” from battleground states who signed false certificates claiming Trump as the victor.

Notably absent from the fanfare? Any White House fanfare or Trump tweetstorm. This “soft pardon,” as insiders whisper, underscores a pragmatic calculus: With federal cases long dismissed and public appetite for revisiting 2020’s wounds at low ebb, the gesture shields allies without reigniting old fires.