Trump Pardons Ex-Congressman Stephen Buyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana, who served a prison sentence for illegal stock trading. Buyer was convicted of making trades based on insider information after leaving office. He received a 22-month prison sentence in 2023 and was ordered to forfeit over $350,000, the sum of his illegal gains, along with a $10,000 fine. Buyer was released in 2025.

In his pardon statement, Trump highlighted Buyer’s service as a judge advocate general in the Army and his congressional tenure as “distinguished and highly productive.” The pardon, signed on Thursday, was announced by the White House on Friday.

Buyer claimed the pardon rectifies what he termed a “politically motivated prosecution.” He insisted on his innocence, describing the experience of imprisonment for a crime he did not commit as “horrific.” Trump also shared letters on his Truth Social platform advocating for Buyer’s pardon, emphasizing Buyer’s military service and his role as a lawyer and Gulf War veteran. Buyer had left Congress in 2011, after participating as a House prosecutor in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in 1998, and later worked on Trump’s 2016 transition team focusing on veterans’ issues.

More than 40 former Republican lawmakers endorsed Buyer, alleging he was “targeted by the deep state” due to his involvement in Clinton’s trial. They compared Buyer’s situation to challenges faced by Trump himself, attributing it to “lawfare conducted by the Biden Administration,” as stated in their April 2025 letter. A separate letter from five current House Republicans echoed these sentiments, stressing that a pardon would serve justice. Signatories included Tom Cole, Ken Calvert, Marlin Stutzman, Jack Bergman, and Pete Sessions.

Buyer, aged 67, was convicted of insider trading related to the T-Mobile and Sprint merger valued at $26.5 billion in April 2018, as well as trades involving Navigant and Guidehouse during their acquisition phase.

The Constitution affords the president broad powers to pardon federal crimes. While pardons do not remove the criminal record, they are acts of mercy or justice in certain situations.