President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to a former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, who was convicted in federal court last year of bribery and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The president blamed the Biden administration for what he called a vindictive prosecution.
The pardon for Scott Jenkins, a prominent local supporter of the president who is also an advocate for gun rights, is the latest example of Trump’s use of clemency for his supporters who were convicted in federal court.
Jenkins and his family were “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized” Justice Department, Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
Jenkins accepted $75,000 in bribes in the form of campaign contributions from several businesspeople in exchange for making them auxiliary deputy sheriffs in his department, the U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of Virginia said.
He was convicted in 2024 of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
The men who paid the bribes received badges and credentials even though they were not vetted or trained as sheriffs, the attorney’s office said in a statement.
Jenkins, who presents himself on his personal website as a defender of Second Amendment rights, was first elected sheriff in 2011. He was voted out in 2023 amid the bribery case, convicted in December 2024 and sentenced in March.
“He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life,” said Trump, who issued a full and unconditional pardon.
Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, said that there was no justification for the pardon, given the quality of the evidence amassed by the prosecution and the jury’s verdict.
“It is a straightforward case of bribery by a public official with many witnesses testifying,” Tobias said in an interview, adding that the position held by Jenkins made the crime all the more serious. “Sheriffs can put everybody else in jail.”
Trump’s decision in the case, however, is consistent with his commitment to undo what he portrays as the politicized application of justice by his predecessor. To that end, the administration has set up a team of appointees focusing on clemency grants. In the largest such example, Trump in January granted clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Critics of Trump argue that he has ignored the screening and guidelines of the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney in his clemency grants. Some critics say President Joe Biden also ignored the guidelines when he issued a sweeping pardon in December for his son Hunter and other family members, after repeatedly saying that he would not do so.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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