President Donald Trump has quietly pardoned a former Republican congressman.
The White House announced that it was pardoning Stephen Buyer, but did so with less pomp and circumstance than it has done for other pardons, like those who raided the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Buyer, 67, was convicted on four federal charges tied to hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit gains. He was ordered to forfeit approximately $350,000—the amount he made from the scheme—and pay a $10,000 fine. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison in September 2023.
“No insider trader is above the law, and we will continue to bring those who undermine the fairness and integrity of our markets to justice,” Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at his sentencing.
Trump’s “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” cited Buyer’s service as a military judge and his time in the House as a representative from Indiana between 1993 and 2011. The pardon comes after the Supreme Court declined to take up Buter’s bid to overturn the conviction in May.
The pardon was endorsed by both current and former Republican lawmakers. Buyer, who maintains his innocence, said it “corrects a politically motivated prosecution” and added that it was “horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit,” he told the Associated Press.
Trump has repeatedly exercised his power to pardon in MAGA 2.0.
Some of those pardoned have been linked to large donations to Trump’s political committees, including Trevor Milton, who was convicted of fraud but later granted a pardon after he and his wife each donated $900,000 to Trump-aligned committees.
The president signed off on Buyer’s pardon on Thursday, but the White House did not announce it until the following day.
The legal news site Lawfare reported that at least 97 of the more than 1,500 Capitol riot defendants pardoned by Trump have since been arrested, charged, or convicted of crimes unrelated to Jan. 6.
Lawfare reported that at least 14 of those pardoned have since been charged with sex crimes or offenses involving child sexual abuse material, six have faced domestic violence charges, and at least 20 have been charged with DUI or public intoxication.
Despite this, the president is still reportedly planning to issue 250 pardons to mark 250 years since America’s independence this summer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
