Rudy Giuliani, disbarred attorney and former adviser to Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, is seen on the convention floor during the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has pardoned scores of allies including his former personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who faced charges and investigations alleging interference in the 2020 election.

The latest clemencies for more than 70 people in what he called "a process of national reconciliation" followed Trump's pardon on the first day of his second term of about 1,600 charged in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. 2021.

Others who were pardoned included Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff; Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department assistant attorney general who is now at the Office of Management and Budget; and Kenneth Chesebro, a private attorney who formerly advised Trump. All three faced state charges in Georgia related to election interference, and Chesebro pleaded guilty.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” Trump said in the document dated Nov. 7.

Trump’s pardon attorney at the Justice Department, Ed Martin, announced the proclamation providing the pardons in a social media post Nov. 9. The pardon applies to conduct "relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for" slates of presidential electors or "efforts to expose voting fraud" in the 2020 election, the proclamation said.

“These great Americans were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden Administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in statement.

The federal pardons don’t apply to state-level charges. A number of the pardons went to people who face state-level charges in Georgia and Arizona for alleged election interference, including Giuliani, Meadows and Clark.

In Arizona, the state Court of Appeals sent the case against Trump allies back to the grand jury because of complaints about how evidence was presented to the initial grand jury in 2024.

The Georgia case with charges against Trump and more than a dozen allies is on hold awaiting a new prosecutor after the state Supreme Court removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, over her relationship with another prosecutor on the case.

Clark said Trump called him Nov. 7 to notify him about the pardon, which he said he hadn’t requested.

“I did nothing wrong when I questioned the 2020 election in Georgia, including by drafting an unsent privileged letter urging Georgia officials to launch their own investigations and then decide for themselves how to proceed,” Clark said in a social media post Nov. 10. “I shouldn't have had to battle this witch hunt for 4+ years.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others accused of election interference

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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