President Donald Trump announced on Monday his pardon of former Culpeper County, Virginia, sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of federal bribery and fraud charges in December.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Jenkins was a victim of the “Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”
Jenkins was sheriff for 12 years before being voted out of office after his indictment on bribery charges. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing wealthy businessmen as unpaid auxiliary deputies. Prosecutors said the men paid for badges so that they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit.
Neither Jenkins’s attorneys nor the Justice Department had responded to a request for comment about the pardon at the time of publication.
Most federal pardons go through the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department, which reviews applications and makes recommendations, but the Constitution gives the president broad authority to grant pardons. This means the president can bypass the formal review process and issue a pardon at any time for any federal offense, with or without an application. It is typically documented in a signed proclamation, and the process does not require judicial approval or congressional oversight.
The pardon of Jenkins adds to a growing list of controversial clemency decisions by Trump. One of his first acts after returning to office on Jan. 20 was a sweeping grant of clemency to all rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In his first term, Trump pardoned former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for defying a court order to stop detaining people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants; Trump adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of obstruction and lying to Congress; and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
The Justice Department issued a news release in March applauding the original conviction and condemning Jenkins’s actions.
“We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable,” acting U.S. attorney Zachary T. Lee said in the news release.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
