Trump Pardons Five Former NFL Players for Perjury, Drug Trafficking and Counterfeiting

Trump issued pardons in February 2026 to five former NFL players, announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson. They were Joe Klecko, who pleaded guilty to perjury for lying to a federal grand jury investigating insurance fraud; Nate Newton, who pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking after authorities found 175 pounds of marijuana and $10,000; Jamal Lewis, who pleaded guilty in a drug case involving a cellphone used to attempt to arrange a deal shortly after he was drafted in 2000; Travis Henry, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine while financing a ring operating between Colorado and Montana; and Billy Cannon, who admitted to counterfeiting in the mid-1980s and was pardoned posthumously.

Johnson framed the grants around second chances, saying "excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again." The White House did not give case-specific reasons for the pardons, and the sources reviewed do not indicate whether the Office of the Pardon Attorney reviewed the petitions through the ordinary process.

The pardons are final and unreviewable; the clemency power is not subject to judicial or congressional check.