Washington – The government’s proof against Scott Jenkins was convincing, including an infiltration video and other corroboration showing Jenkins, then the sheriff of County Culpeper, in Virginia, accepting More than $ 75,000 In exchange for the authorization of the law forces to local businessmen, as well as two special infiltration FBI agents.
Jenkins’ co-accused all pleaded guilty, and the jurors did not take long to condemn Jenkins last year, deliberating for about two hours before making him guilty for all the counts. When Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March, the acting American prosecutor of the western district of Virginia said that he “had violated his oath and the faith that the citizens of the Culpeper County had placed him when he engaged in a cash program.”
But on Monday, President Donald Trump announced that he was forgiven Jenkins, calling him “victim of an overly zealous Biden justice ministry” who “does not deserve to spend a single day in prison”. This is part of a wider diagram for Trump, who, during the first months of his second term, pardoned at least four former support officials who were found guilty of financial irrecroetus.
Trump, who faced two distinct federal criminal cases which was abandoned after being re -elected in November, has long argued that he was the victim of the armament of the Ministry of Justice and the FBI, and it was sympathetic to those who make similar allegations, especially those who are politically aligned with him.
In February, Trump forgave Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic Governor of Illinois, whose conviction he had commissioned in 2020After being convicted of corruption accusations related to corruption. (Blagojevich attended the 2024 republican convention in support of Trump.) Trump Republican forgiven Former senator from the state of Tennessee Brian Kelsey In March, just over two weeks after a sentence of 21 months for a fraud conviction linked to the financing of the campaign. (The republican colleagues of Tennessee implored Trump to forgive Kelsey, who thanked him to his prison release and said that “God used Donald Trump to save me”) last month, Trump The former Republican forgiven by the former member of the Las Vegas municipal council Michele FioreWho would have been convicted this month after being convicted of conspiracy and accusation of fraud by thread linked to the collection of poorly used funds. (Fiore had reached Trump’s political career and benefited from her approval when she supported her false statements on electoral fraud in the 2020 elections.)
These four figures and their pardons are not the only proof of a ministry of justice exceeding cases of public corruption. In the first days of the administration, the Ministry of Justice abandoned a case of campaign financing Against the former republican representative Jeff Fletenberry du Nebraska, who had set up at trial next month.
The Trump administration also moved to Submit the corruption file against the mayor of New York Eric Adamsled Several officials of the Ministry of Justice resign to protest.
Adams and Jenkins affairs, among others, are linked by the public integrity section of the Ministry of Justice. The division, which focuses on affairs against officials accused of having violated the law, has narrowed in size and influence during the Trump administration. The FBI Washington field office is Stop a public corruption team This was focused on federal corruption.
“It is clear that this administration does not believe that the reduction of public corruption is a priority,” said Stacey Young, a former head of the Ministry of Justice who founded Justice Connection, a network of former justice ministries has trained in response to the overhaul of the Trump administration of the Ministry of Justice. “To forgive a sheriff that has taken money for assistant badges is only the last of a series of actions that this president has taken to undermine any effort to hold the officials responsible for the public that they are sworn to serve.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
‘Make Virginia again
We do not know how the Jenkins affair first made his way on the White House radar, but he found a donor at Ed Martin, the conservative activist that Trump initially charged the American lawyer’s office in Washington before recently appointed the Advocate to the American forgiveness. Martin Written on x That he was “delighted” the Jenkins “was the first forgiveness since he took the position:” Congratulations, the sheriff Jenkins: do great things and we make proud. »»
In a thread in which he thanked Trump for forgiven Jenkins, Martin – who is also Director of the Armament Working Group of the Ministry of Justice – wrote“No Maga left.”
Last week, Martin met the White House “Pardon Czar” Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence for a drug Trump commted to his first mandate. Trump later gave Johnson a complete forgiveness.
In an interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, broadcast on Fox News this month, Johnson said She would examine the cases of people who spent too much time behind bars, as well as “the victims of the law, in the same way as our president.”
An official of the Ministry of Justice said that Martin was impatient to get involved in the Jenkins case after meetings with the White House and that he concluded and supported Trump’s decision to deliver a forgiveness.
Jenkins had argued that he had been targeted because of his conservative policy, including his positions on immigration, firearms and covored locking. In his own memory determinationJenkins’ lawyers said he “categorically retained his innocence”.
When Jenkins was the subject of an investigation, he and other sheriffs discussed the possibility of “flying to a secret place to see the laptop Hunter Biden, then carry accusations against Hunter Biden on the basis of all the illustrated crimes” written in the memo of determining the penalty.
The government said Jenkins had Parjured at the trial, wrongly testifying that the co-owner Rick Rahim had given him a “commercial investment” because Jenkins had protected the logo “to do Virginia again” and that they were investing in shirts and red hats. The discussions on the “Make America Great Again” shirts only occurred after Rahim made payments in Jenkins, which were intended to help him restore his firearms, argued the prosecutors.
Last week, Prosecutors asked a judge To condemn Rahim, who pleaded guilty, at 27 months in prison, claiming that Jenkins made Rahim a “helicopter pilot” in exchange for bribes and pushed his petition to restore the rights of firearms even if Rahim did not live in the county.
Prosecutors said recordings had captured Jenkins as part of the program in clear terms after being frustrated that Rahim was pushing for more favors.
“I appreciate the support you give me, but you didn’t do it for nothing. According to a court. “We followed him by using you. Name another sheriff throughout the state of Virginia that would do this. ”
An Jenkins lawyer did not respond to a request for comments, and a message left to a phone number registered in Jenkins received no response.
Meanwhile, no more pardons for Trump supporters can be in progress.
Tuesday, Trump called two of the children of reality Todd and Julie Chrisley And told them that their parents would receive pardons for banking fraud, tax evasion and accusations of conspiracy. One of their daughters, the star of reality Savannah Chrisley, spoke in their name to the National Republican Convention last year and appeared recently on a Fox News segment With Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
“When I saw, of course, what the president was going through, what I was going through was strangely similar,” said Savannah Chrisley in the interview.
Martin recently met the lawyer Peter Ticktin, who presented requests for forgiveness for the members of the Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers, as Reported for the first time by Politico. While most of the defendants of January 6 obtained complete pardons, Trump initially commissioned the sorrows of certain members of the two far -right groups, ending their prison sentences but by maintaining the condemnations and collateral consequences – such as the deprivation of certain rights – which accompany them.
“There are many reasons of hope,” New York military academy went to NBC New York with NBC. “No promise has been made about what would be done; this is not how it works. We present it and then we hope the best.”
