President Donald Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to Stephen Buyer, former U.S. representative from Indiana, after Buyer served time for an insider trading conviction. From the Associated Press:
Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.
The Supreme Court in May rejected Buyer’s appeal without comment or noted dissent.
In granting “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon,” Trump cited Buyer’s career as a judge advocate general in the Army and in the House that was “distinguished and highly productive.” The pardon was dated Thursday and released by the White House late Friday.
Buyer said the pardon “corrects a politically motivated prosecution” and that it was “horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit.” He maintains that he is innocent.
Buyer represented Indiana in the House from 1993 to 2011, served in the Army Reserve and National Guard, and worked as a consultant after leaving Congress. A federal jury convicted him in 2023 on four counts of securities fraud tied to trades connected to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger and Navigant Consulting.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman sentenced him to 22 months in prison, forfeiture of more than $350,000, and a $10,000 fine.
Cue the fainting couches.
The people who are about to catch a strong case of the vapors are about to tell you about Trump's corruption. That same political class that barely blinked when former President Joe “Pudd'n Brains” Biden handed out sweeping preemptive pardons will now lecture the country about standards, decency, and the sacred purity of clemency.
Buyer's pardon may be fair to debate. Presidents have wide pardon power, and every use of it deserves scrutiny. Still, the outrage will sound mighty theatrical coming from the people who treated Biden's final round of protection as if it were routine paperwork.
Buyer maintained his innocence and argued that his prosecution was politically driven. The White House cited his military service, congressional record, and support from over 50 current and former lawmakers.
Trump also acted after Buyer had already served his sentence. None of those facts erase the conviction, but they do place the pardon in a narrower lane than the one Biden used in his final hours as president.
Let's walk down memory lane a tad, shall we?
Biden's late-term pardon spree shielded Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; members and staff of the House committee that investigated Jan. 6; and several Biden family members. From the Associated Press:
Joe Biden, in one of his final acts as president, pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an extraordinary use of executive power to guard against potential “revenge” by the new Trump administration.
The decision Monday by Biden came after now-President Donald Trump had warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the Capitol siege four years ago. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
The prospect of such pardons had been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
The Fauci pardon covered possible offenses tied to a period running back years. The issue isn't whether the autopen automatically invalidated anything; the issue is manner, scale, and who really had control over such broad language and, of course, the autopen.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has pushed questions about Biden's use of the autopen and whether aides played an outsized role in major presidential actions near the end of Biden's term. From the House Oversight Committee:
Following the findings of its investigation, the Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting the U.S. Department of Justice conduct a comprehensive review of all executive actions taken during the Biden presidency and scrutinize key Biden aides—Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal—who pleaded the Fifth Amendment during the investigation. Chairman Comer also sent a letter to the District of Columbia Board of Medicine seeking its review of actions taken by Dr. O’Connor to determine any potential wrongdoing in his medical care of the former president.
“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. As Americans saw President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, Biden’s inner circle sought to deceive the public, cover-up his decline, and took unauthorized executive actions with the autopen that are now invalid,” said Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). “Our report reveals how key aides colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished. Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void. We are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a thorough review of these executive actions and scrutinize key Biden aides who took the Fifth to hide their participation in the cover-up. The D.C. Board of Medicine must also review the actions taken by President Biden’s physician to hide his true condition. We have provided Americans with transparency about the Biden Autopen Presidency, and now there must be accountability.”
Legal scholars will argue process all day while Americans still look at a machine-applied signature, sweeping preemptive language, political allies, family members, and last-minute timing and smell the old Washington perfume. It has notes of panic, privilege, and shredded accountability.
Democrats and the media, but I repeat myself, can complain about Buyer all they want, but they don't get to pretend Biden never happened. They tolerated shields for allies who hadn't even been charged, shrugged through family pardons, and accepted an end-of-term clemency package written so broadly that future investigators could hit a wall before asking the first hard question.
Now, dollars to donuts, they will try to turn Buyer into the scandal that proves Trump's corruption.
Pfft!
Buyer's pardon is a legitimate news story. Biden's final pardons remain the larger warning sign. One involved a former congressman who had served prison time for a defined conviction; the other protected a network of political allies and family members before future legal questions could be considered.
The left can argue Trump shouldn't have pardoned Buyer.
Fine.
They shouldn't expect the rest of us to forget the autopen era, the Fauci shield, the family favors, and the sudden discovery of outrage right after Biden used the pardon power like a fire blanket.
The Buyer pardon will bring the usual noise, but the larger story sits in Biden’s blanket shields, the autopen questions, and Washington’s selective memory. PJ Media continues to dig through the spin without asking permission from the people who created it. Join the PJ Media VIP family today and get 60% off with promo code FIGHT.
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