President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison after being convicted of making illegal stock trades based on confidential inside information. The pardon, dated Thursday, was released by the White House late on Friday night and described Buyer's career as "distinguished and highly productive."
Buyer, 67, was sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison for trades he made while working as a consultant and lobbyist after leaving Congress in 2011. Prosecutors found he had illegally profited from advance knowledge of two major corporate deals: the $26.5 billion merger of telecommunications companies T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, and the acquisition of management consulting firm Navigant by his client Guidehouse. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 in illegal gains and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released from prison in 2025, and the Supreme Court rejected his appeal in May without comment or noted dissent.
In granting what he called a "full, complete, and unconditional pardon," Trump pointed to Buyer's service as a judge advocate general in the US Army, his role as a Gulf War veteran, and his years in the House of Representatives. Buyer had a notable political history: he served as a House prosecutor during Democratic President Bill Clinton's 1998 impeachment trial and joined Trump's transition team in 2016, focusing on veterans' affairs. Responding to the pardon, Buyer said it "corrects a politically motivated prosecution" and called it "horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit" — a position he has maintained throughout.
Support for the pardon came from within Republican ranks. A letter signed by more than 40 former Republican members of Congress argued that Buyer had been "targeted by the deep state" because of his role in Clinton's impeachment trial, adding that he had been "the victim of lawfare conducted by the Biden Administration." A separate letter from five sitting House Republicans, including senior figures such as Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Ken Calvert of California, also urged Trump to act.
The pardon is the latest in a series of executive clemency decisions that have drawn scrutiny. Under the US Constitution, the president holds broad authority to pardon federal crimes, though a pardon does not erase the recipient's criminal record. Critics are likely to question whether the decision reflects justice or political loyalty, while Buyer's supporters frame it as a necessary correction to what they describe as a weaponised legal system. The case adds to a broader debate about the scope and motivations behind presidential pardon power.