List of Donald Trump Pardon Recipients Charged with New C...

By Daniel Orton

Editor, Live News

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At least 13 people granted clemency by Donald Trump in his first and second terms have been charged with separate crimes, often after the president stepped in—including two men convicted earlier in November.

It comes as recent polling suggests Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s recent pardons and commutations, viewing them as controversial and politically charged.

Newsweek emailed the White House for comment.

Why It Matters

The rising number of pardoned individuals by Trump who have subsequently faced new criminal charges has intensified scrutiny of the presidential clemency process.

Some experts and lawmakers have expressed concerns that these pardons, many of which bypassed the traditional vetting process, risk undermining both the perception and reality of equal justice under the law.

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What To Know

Trump pardoned 238 people during his first term and has since extended pardons to an additional 1,500 Capitol rioters and others after his 2024 reelection. Below is a running list of those individuals who have been arrested, charged or sentenced with other crimes before and since:

Andrew Taake

Taake was pardoned after participating in the January 6 Capitol attack, in which he assaulted officers with pepper spray and a metal whip. He was subsequently arrested on an outstanding Texas charge (online solicitation of a minor dating to 2016).

Edward Kelley

Before being pardoned for his role on January 6, the former U.S. Marine was convicted in a separate case in November 2024, of conspiracy to murder FBI agents who had investigated him over the Capitol attack. A judge ruled his pardon did not cover those charges, and he was sentenced to life in prison in July.

Emily Hernandez

Hernandez participated in January 6, and was photographed holding then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s broken nameplate. After being pardoned, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a fatal DUI crash from January 2022.

Daniel Ball

Ball was alleged to have thrown an explosive device at officers on January 6 and was later charged with illegally possessing a gun as a felon. After his pardon, the separate federal gun case was dismissed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in February.

David Daniel

The January 6 participant was indicted in October 2024 for production/possession of child pornography and sexual assault of a minor.

Shane Jason Woods

In April 2025, the pardoned January 6 participant was convicted of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide in a wrong-way crash, but acquitted in an earlier murder charge acquitted. In August, Woods was sentenced to 17 years in prison for that crime.

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Theodore Middendorf

January 6 participant Middendorf is currently in prison serving a 19-year sentence for sexual assault of a 7-year-old, after pleading guilty to that crime in May 2024.

Taylor Taranto

January 6 participant Taranto was arrested in 2023 for illegal gun possession and making a bomb threat near the National Institute of Standards and Technology and near former President Barack Obama’s residence. He was convicted in May. In October, it was revealed that the Department of Justice removed references to Trump and the Capitol riot in court documents related to Taranto's sentencing.

Brent John Holdridge

On May 11, 2025, the January 6 participant was arrested in California for burglary/grand theft/possession of stolen industrial copper wire.

Zachary Alam

After his January 6 pardon, Alam was arrested in May for home invasion and theft. He was convicted on those charges in October.

Andrew Paul Johnson

Johnson, a pardoned January 6 participant, was arrested in Florida earlier in November (having been extradited from Tennessee) on multiple child-sexual-abuse-related charges: lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12, molestation of child aged 12-16, lewd and lascivious exhibition, and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The arrest affidavit alleges that he told one of the children that because of his pardon he would receive $10 million and would include the child in his will. He has pleaded not guilty.

Jonathan Braun

Braun, from Long Island, New York, originally was serving a 10-year federal sentence for a marijuana-importation/money-laundering/predatory-lending scheme, but his sentence was commuted by Trump on January 20, 2021. After his release, Braun violated terms of his supervised release. He was found guilty of multiple charges including menacing, forcible touching, petit larceny, sexual abuse, and failing to pay a fine; some allegations include assaulting a 3-year-old and sexually assaulting his children’s nanny. On 10 November 2025, Braun was sentenced to 27 months in prison, plus 3-and-a-half years supervised release thereafter and six months of residential drug/mental-health treatment, for the supervised-release violations.

Eliyahu Weinstein

Weinstein is a New Jersey individual whose 24-year sentence for a major real-estate/Ponzi-type fraud scheme was commuted by Trump in January 2021. In March 2025 he was convicted of a new fraud scheme defrauding investors of about $35 million involving medical supplies, baby formula and first-aid kits purportedly destined for Ukraine. On November 18 he was sentenced to 37 years in federal prison and ordered to pay about $44.3 million in restitution.

Additionally, Matthew Huttle, a January 6 defendant from Indiana, was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop one week after being pardoned. He was armed and resisted arrest, police said.

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Meanwhile, a YouGov poll in October showed that 60 percent of respondents disapproved of Trump commuting New York Republican former Representative George Santos’ sentence for identity theft and wire fraud, compared to just 16 percent who approved. While Republicans were split on Santos (35 percent approved, 31 percent disapproved), they largely opposed Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder convicted of money laundering (34 percent to 26 percent). Public sentiment was even harsher toward hypothetical pardons for Sean "Diddy" Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell, who were both convicted in high-profile sex-crime cases and have past social ties to the president. Only four percent and two percent of Americans supported clemency for those individuals, respectively.

What People Are Saying

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said: "When it comes to pardons, the White House takes them with the utmost seriousness and the president understands the responsibility that he has as president to issue pardons to individuals who are seeking that. That’s why we have a very thorough review process here that moves with the Department of Justice and the White House Counsel’s office."