Big Donor's Paper Rips Trump Pardon

A Nevada newspaper owned by a megadonor to President Trump has harshly criticized the president's pardon last week of a local political operative convicted of fraud, calling the action "a debasement of presidential pardon power." The editorial published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is owned by billionaire Miriam Adelson, addressed Trump's pardon of Michele Fiore, the Guardian reports. The longtime Trump supporter, who was convicted of fraud after taking donations for a statue honoring a police officer killed in the line of duty, faced a prison term at sentencing next month.

The Review-Journal's editorial pointed out that Trump gave no explanation for Fiore's pardon, which it called "an affront to the federal jury that heard her case and sends precisely the wrong message to public officials tempted to enrich themselves through their sinecures." It says pardons usually are issued in the case of someone who was wrongly convicted or whose case includes another injustice. "There is no evidence that either occurred in this case," the editorial in the state's largest paper says. "Instead, it's difficult to argue that political considerations weren't the primary motivation for granting relief to Ms Fiore." Adelson put $100 million of her own money into a pro-Trump PAC for the 2024 presidential race, per the New York Times. (More Michele Fiore stories.)