President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Rep. Michael G. Grimm is on the public record.
The Department of Justice released pardon documents Thursday, a day after reports that the president had issued them. A White House official confirmed the New York Republican’s pardon ahead of the official release.
The pardon, one of a slew of clemency actions by Trump just this week, is the latest case of the president granting leniency to a former public official — with another onetime Republican congressman, former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, also pardoned in the latest round.
The president’s decision to pardon Grimm was first reported Wednesday by NY1. While in Congress, Grimm once threatened to throw a reporter from that outlet off a Capitol Rotunda balcony.
Grimm resigned from Congress in 2015 in the middle of his third term representing a Staten Island-based district that also includes parts of Brooklyn. While he had been indicted on broader charges, he ultimately pleaded guilty to evading taxes, including by underreporting receipts from a restaurant business he operated before serving in Congress. Some of those funds were used to pay employees under the table.
“Now, I want you to know, I’ve already been inundated with messages and comments by many that everyone does this, everyone pays people off the books and it’s very common,” Grimm explained to reporters after entering his plea. “But let me be very clear: It’s wrong. I should not have done it and I’m truly sorry for it.”
He went on to serve seven months in prison and was released in May 2016, one month early.
Grimm launched an ill-fated political comeback during the 2018 cycle, losing the Republican nomination for his old seat to Rep. Dan Donovan, his successor in Congress. Donovan went on to lose the general election that year to Democrat Max Rose.
The prospects of a Trump pardon were front-and-center during that 2018 campaign, with Grimm alleging during a debate on 77 WABC that Donovan had previously advocated a presidential pardon so Grimm would not challenge him.
Grimm, who had more recently been a Newsmax commentator, sustained significant injuries in a horse riding accident last year. In a January video posted to social media, Grimm said he was using a wheelchair and working on rehabilitation to be able to move his legs.
