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President Donald Trump granted clemency this year to a range of figures he viewed as victims of an unfair justice system. Some were tied to his newfound interest in cryptocurrency or shared in his 2020 election grievances, while another was simply brought up during a round of golf.

While presidents of both parties have long used their pardon power in controversial ways, Trump’s clemency activity in 2025 stood out for its volume and for the deal-making style that has been a defining feature of his approach to power. 

What follows is a list of some of the president's most controversial pardons in 2025. 

Jan. 6 defendants

The day Trump took office, he issued mass clemency to nearly all his supporters who had been convicted of federal offenses related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Trump said at the time they had been "treated very unfair" by prosecutors and the courts.

Roughly 1,600 people faced charges over the Capitol attack, and the Department of Justice secured guilty pleas or convictions for more than 1,200 of them, according to federal data. About 200 pleaded guilty to felonies that included assaulting officers, and more than 200 others were convicted in trials of offenses that included attacking law enforcement.

Trump singled out 14 of the defendants, some of whom received prison sentences that stretched beyond a decade, and commuted their sentences instead of pardoning them. They included numerous Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders.

BOASBERG REVERSES COURSE ON JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS PARDONED BY TRUMP

President Donald Trump's supporters rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., while some breach restricted areas on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

The president also directed the DOJ to drop pending cases for all the remaining defendants. The grand act of clemency wiped out one of the DOJ's largest and most resource-intensive law enforcement operations in history. Cases were brought throughout all four years of the Biden administration.

Changpeng Zhao

The founder and former CEO of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency platform, was convicted of anti-money laundering violations and received a full pardon in October 2025.

The pardon came one week after Donald Trump Jr. introduced a lobbyist for Zhao to Trump while on stage at Charlie Kirk’s memorial.

Critics observed that Binance has boosted the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, but a lawyer denied any business reasons for the pardon, instead telling Zhao was "pardoned for justice."