What happened
President Donald Trump said Monday he was pardoning a former sheriff in Culpeper County, Virginia, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges. Scott Jenkins was sheriff for 12 years before voters rejected him following his 2023 indictment.
Who said what
A jury convicted Jenkins, 53, of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes from wealthy businessmen in exchange for making them auxiliary deputies, which allowed them to avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed weapons. Trump said on social media that Jenkins was “dragged through HELL” by an “overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”
The Justice Department had celebrated Jenkins’ conviction in March. “We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct” and will “hold them accountable” when they “use their authority for unjust personal enrichment,” acting U.S. attorney Zachary Lee said in a statement. Jenkins is the “latest pardon Trump has given to loyal supporters,” The Associated Press said, including 1,500-plus Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot participants and, last month, Nevada Republican Michele Fiore, convicted of spending money raised for a statue honoring a slain police officer on cosmetic surgery and other personal expenses.
What next?
Jenkins “will not be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life,” Trump said. Critics may decry Trump’s “growing list of controversial clemency decisions,” The Washington Post said, but the Constitution gives “the president broad authority to grant pardons,” and the process “does not require judicial approval or congressional oversight.”
Former sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal bribery and fraud charges