More than $1 billion. That's likely how much the government lost in restitution and other fees from Trump's pardon recipients. Presidential pardons erase any unpaid fees defendants have been ordered to pay as part of their sentences, though it's unclear in many cases whether Trump's pardon recipients had paid any part of their fees, making the exact amount the government lost out on unknown. Those who received clemency after offering some benefit to Trump were often those who owed particularly large amounts of cash: Zhao was ordered to pay $50 million in restitution; Milton owed approximately $676 million in restitution to shareholders and a Nikola investor; Ulbricht was ordered to pay $183.9 million and HDR Global Trading owed a $100 million fine. In Milton's case, it's unclear how much of his nine-figure fine he would have had to pay, however, as the amount was still being finalized and had not been approved by a judge at the time of his pardon.
Many of Trump's pardons and commutations in his second term have been for people who support him politically, though FEC filings suggest many haven't given his campaign any notable donations. Former Nevada politician Michelle Fiore was known as a longtime Trump supporter prior to the president pardoning her -- even earning the nickname "Lady Trump" -- and he had previously endorsed her in a race for state treasurer while she had spread his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin described Trump's pardon of former Virginia sheriff Scott Howard Jenkins as showing, "No MAGA left behind," while former Republican Rep. Michael Grimm earned a pardon after speaking out in Trump's favor and becoming an on-air personality for Trump-friendly Newsmax. Former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey, indicted on campaign finance-related crimes, was pardoned after he repeatedly praised Trump on social media and later went to work as a lawyer for America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank widely credited for helping to spearhead Trump's presidential transition. Most notably, Trump's first pardons after his inauguration were blanket pardons to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, after rioters stormed the Capitol in protest of Trump's loss in the 2020 election. The president also commuted the sentences of 14 people who were convicted of harsher crimes related to Jan. 6, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, though none are shown to have donated significant amounts to Trump's campaign.
Jeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state senator whom Trump pardoned for corruption and fraud charges, also spent significant money on his pardon, though it didn't go to Trump directly. The New York Times reported in 2020 that Hutchinson's father Tim Hutchinson paid a lobbyist $10,000 in 2020, during Trump's first term, to lobby for his son's release. Before Trump took up Ulbricht's cause to shore up support among Libertarians, a man connected to the Silk Road founder, Brian Anderson, also spent $22,500 lobbying on Ulbricht's behalf at the end of Trump's first presidency. NBC News reported last week the Trump administration is now seeking to halt outside lobbying efforts around pardons, citing more recent reports in which people have attempted to solicit as much as $30 million to help secure clemency.
It's unclear, though Politico reported in May that Martin was reviewing pardon applications for Jan. 6 conspirators that Trump had already given commutations to, such as Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Crypto booster Roger Ver, known as "Bitcoin Jesus," has also been angling for clemency from Trump for charges of tax evasion and mail fraud, Bloomberg reported in August, though a campaign to secure a pardon for Ver appears to have fizzled out. Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell -- who was moved to a lower-security facility earlier this year after speaking with the DOJ and absolving Trump of any role in Epstein's sex-trafficking operation -- has also been angling for clemency, with whistleblower documents given to House Democrats suggesting Maxwell is preparing a "commutation application" for the president. Trump has not committed either way to giving Maxwell clemency, saying in October he would "have to take a look at it" and he "wouldn't consider it or not consider." Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was sentenced to four years in prison, have also said they've reached out to the White House about a pardon. Trump has complained Combs was "very hostile" to the president during his campaign, however, and told The Times in January he was not considering granting Combs' pardon request.
The president also ruled out pardons for now-indicted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, former Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, and said he "[hadn't] been asked" about pardoning Derek Chauvin, the officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020.