Trump Pardons Former Congressman Michael Grimm

On May 28, 2025 President Trump issued a full pardon to former Staten Island congressman Michael Grimm, who had pleaded guilty in 2014 to felony tax fraud tied to underreporting wages and revenue at a Manhattan restaurant he owned before joining Congress. Grimm served about eight months in federal prison before his release in 2016.

Grimm, a Republican and former Marine and FBI agent, resigned from Congress after his conviction but remained active in conservative politics and briefly won a 2020 congressional primary. He was a consistent Trump ally in the years following his conviction.

The pardon extended a pattern in which Trump's clemency decisions during his second term have concentrated on politically loyal or well-connected figures rather than following the Justice Department's traditional case-by-case review process. Critics describe the trend as 'patronage pardoning'; the White House has characterized such pardons as correcting disproportionate punishments.