Over the last 48 hours, the convicted felon and professional swindler in the White House has issued a flurry of pardons targeting those who politically, economically, or ideologically support his fascist agenda. The pardons are not acts of mercy for those wrongly or unfairly convicted and sentenced by the US injustice system, but political patronage doled out by President Donald Trump to his ruling class allies.

On May 26, Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, an outright fascist. In a Truth Social post on May 26, Trump claimed Jenkins was “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.” He added that Jenkins is a “wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’”

In December 2024, Jenkins was convicted by a Charlottesville, Virginia, jury on 12 counts, including bribery, fraud and conspiracy, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison this past March. The jury found that Jenkins accepted more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for “deputizing” local businessmen.

At trial, prosecutors provided evidence that those who paid Jenkins—including two undercover FBI agents—were made “auxiliary deputies” and allowed to carry concealed firearms without a permit. The auxiliaries were also allowed to carry a badge, which prosecutors said they used to try to avoid traffic tickets.

Jenkins’ fascist politics are well known to Trump and his advisors. He has spoken at multiple conferences held by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). CSPOA was founded by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack—a founding board member of the Oath Keepers militia group. The Oath Keepers, alongside the Proud Boys, spearheaded the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which was aimed at keeping Trump in power by delaying the Electoral College certification through violence.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jenkins—emboldened by Trump and Elon Musk’s calls to “liberate” states that enacted limited lockdowns—was one of dozens of CSPOA sheriffs who refused to enforce business closures and mitigation measures ordered by state and medical officials. In a May 2020 interview with the far-right Epoch Times, Jenkins declared, “We won’t be used to enforce an edict or regulation by a governor, health director, or anyone else.”

CSPOA “constitutional” sheriffs advance a fascist and bogus theory that the US Constitution grants county sheriffs more authority than any other state or federal body, and that they alone can decide what laws to enforce based on their reactionary politics.

During a CSPOA webinar in April, Jenkins appealed directly to Trump, saying, “I know he would help if he knew my story.”

The pardoning of Jenkins is a continuation of Trump’s efforts to cultivate a fascist base of support among the military and police. It follows the pardoning and/or commutation of nearly 1,600 of his January 6 foot soldiers earlier this year and the pardoning of war criminals during his first administration. These fascist shock troops are being developed by Trump and the ruling class in preparation for major class conflict against American workers and youth who resist the criminal agenda of the financial oligarchy.

In another example demonstrating the class-based character of the US “justice system,” at the end of last month, Trump pardoned Florida healthcare executive Paul Walczak, 55. He was charged in February 2023 on 13 counts of tax crimes and pleaded guilty to two counts in November 2024. The pardon was issued less than two weeks after Walczak was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing to pay payroll taxes.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Walczak, while working as an executive at his mother’s lucrative nursing home business in South Florida, stopped paying employment taxes in 2011. Between 2016 and 2019, prosecutors alleged that Walczak used more than $10 million withheld as federal taxes from doctors, nurses, and other nursing home staff paychecks to pay for a $2 million yacht and luxury clothing for himself.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Walczak’s pardon came less than three weeks after his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a “candlelight dinner” with Trump, where guests had to pony up $1 million each in order to curry favor with the would-be Führer.

The Times reported that Walczak’s mother not only attended the dinner but had previously raised millions of dollars for Trump and other Republican campaigns—a fact highlighted in the pardon application sent to Trump and reviewed by the Times. The application, according to the paper, claimed that Walczak’s criminal prosecution was motivated not by his criminal activity, but by Fago’s political support for Trump and the Republicans.

The Times reported that Fago, 74, has hosted at least three fundraisers for Trump’s campaigns and attended his 2017 and 2025 inaugurations.

Also on Tuesday, Trump granted full pardons to reality-TV personalities Todd and Julie Chrisley. The couple starred on the reality series Chrisley Knows Best on the USA Network. On the show, the family flaunted their multi-million-dollar mansions and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothing, home furniture and beauty products.

The family presented themselves as the pinnacle of real estate success coupled with Southern Christian values—the “Kardashians of the South.” In reality, their “empire” was built on fraud and deceit.

After three years of investigations, in June 2022 the couple was convicted of defrauding community banks out of over $30 million and of concealing their income in order to avoid paying taxes. During the trial, Assistant US Attorney Annalise Peters said the couple “made up documents” and lied “through their teeth to get whatever they want, whenever they want it.”

After being found guilty on multiple counts in a jury trial, the couple was sentenced to a combined 19 years in minimum-security federal prisons.

Despite overwhelming evidence of their criminality, Trump claimed in a phone call with the Chrisleys’ children from the White House—shared on social media—that Todd and Julie Chrisley were “given pretty harsh treatment” and were “terrific people.”

Savannah Chrisley, who spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC), thanked Trump for standing up against “political prosecutions.”

Appealing to Trump for a pardon at the RNC in 2024, Savannah said her family were the “Trumps of the South” and were being “persecuted by rogue prosecutors in Fulton County due to our public profile” and their “conservative beliefs.”

“Meanwhile,” she said, “the Democrats are releasing actual violent offenders who have hurt innocent people.”

“Look at what they have done to Steve Bannon,” she concluded, referring to Trump’s fascist advisor who served four months in federal prison for contempt of Congress after refusing to testify in relation to the January 6 coup. “The man should be at home.”