Nevada’s Michele Fiore was already a notorious right-wing political figure when her career took a turn for the worse last summer: Fiore was indicted last July on a series of felonies, and the case against her appeared strong.
According to the evidence compiled by federal prosecutors, Fiore used her position as a Las Vegas city councilor to raise money for a seemingly good cause: The Republican said she wanted to build a statue memorializing a police officer who’d been killed while on duty. The effort was successful, and Fiore raised tens of thousands of dollars.
The statue, however, was never built. Instead, according to the criminal indictment, Fiore used the money to pay fundraising bills, subsidize her rent, pay for plastic surgery, and even help cover the expenses of her daughter’s wedding.
Though she pleaded not guilty, a jury heard the evidence and found her guilty of six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Following her conviction, Fiore was poised to be sentenced, and she was likely to be sent to prison for quite a while.
That is, until Donald Trump intervened. NBC News reported:
Trump has pardoned former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore, who was due to be sentenced on wire fraud charges, according to a copy of the pardon her lawyer posted on the docket in connection with her case.
Neither the president nor anyone on his team have explained why, exactly, he decided to let Fiore get away with her apparent felonies, but it’s worth emphasizing for context that Fiore — who has occasionally been described as Nevada’s “Lady Trump” — is a longtime Trump supporter and loyalist.
The pardon is also part of an indefensible pattern.
As Trump prepared to leave the White House after his 2020 election defeat, the Republican issued some of the most controversial pardons in American history. After his second inaugural, he wasted no time in picking up where he left off.
On the first day of his second term, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 Jan. 6 criminals, including violent felons who were in prison for assaulting police officers. A few days later, he kept going, pardoning 23 anti-abortion-rights activists, seemingly unconcerned with their guilt. That was soon followed by a pardon for former Gov. Rob Blagojevich, a man synonymous with corruption in Illinois politics, whom Trump saw as any ally.
In early March, he pardoned a Tennessee Republican who was just two weeks into a 21-month sentence for his role in a campaign finance fraud scheme. In late March, he pardoned a prominent campaign donor. (Asked to defend the latter, the president struggled in unintentionally hilarious ways.)
Taken together, Trump appears to have created an entirely new legal/political dynamic, without precedent in the American tradition, in which pardons are available to perceived political allies with whom the president sympathizes. Fiore is one of the most brazen examples, but she’s not alone.
Traditionally, presidents have issued pardons in order to right a wrong or protect those who have been falsely accused of wrongdoing. In 2025, if Trump sees a convicted criminal as an ally, that’s apparently all the president needs to know. But let’s also not overlook the soft spot Trump seems to have for politicians convicted of corruption. Indeed, the pattern is unmistakable. The Washington Post published this memorable roundup on the last day of Trump’s first term: Since Trump took office, two incumbent Republican congressmen have been convicted of crimes, Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), as has a former congressman, Steve Stockman (R-Tex.). Trump pardoned all three of them. Trump also pardoned four former Republican congressmen convicted before his presidency: Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), Robin Hayes (R-N.C.), Mark Siljander (R-Mich.) and Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.). … [A]ccording to GovTrack’s Legislator Misconduct Database, Trump has now pardoned a majority of Republican congressmen convicted of felonies in the 21st century.
As the president’s second term gets underway in earnest, he hasn’t just pardoned Fiore and a man synonymous with corruption in Illinois politics, his administration has also abandoned the criminal case against a former Republican congressman who’d already been found guilty of corruption by a jury, while simultaneously taking steps to abandon a corruption investigation targeting an incumbent Republican congressman. It’s against this backdrop that the Trump administration also dropped corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The message to politicians convicted or accused of corruption couldn’t be clearer: You have a friend in the Oval Office. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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