WASHINGTON – The more than 70 people pardoned by President Donald Trump, including fake electors accused of helping him try to overturn the 2020 election, are likely only the beginning.

Many more conservatives allegedly “targeted” by the administrations of Joe Biden and Barack Obama are next, Trump pardon attorney Ed Martin said Nov. 10.

Martin's statements come amid a year-long blitz of presidential pardons that have wiped the slate clean for convicts including the Jan. 6 rioters, numerous convicted fraudsters, and several political allies.

“A very little bit behind the curtain: When I began as U.S. Pardon Attorney, POTUS encouraged us to look at two categories of Americans especially,” Martin said, in reference to Trump as president of the United States.

The first was “those who needed and deserved clemency, especially long serving inmates who are ready to be released,” Martin said in an X post.

“Second, he wanted us to look at those people who had been targeted by the Biden administration,” Martin said. “The targeted is a huge group of Americans.”

His first order of business, Martin said, were the 2020 “alternate electors and their affiliates” who were targeted by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and other investigators and prosecutors at the state level in Georgia, Arizona and elsewhere.

But, Martin said, “There are many more Americans who Biden targeted. And we’re working to help them.”

In pardons announced by Martin late Nov. 9, Trump 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.

Those clemencies, part of what Trump called "a process of national reconciliation," followed his pardon on the first day of his second term of about 1,600 people charged in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. 2021.

Others just pardoned include Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff; Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general; Kenneth Chesebro, a private attorney who formerly advised Trump; and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who worked on Trump's behalf in the 2020 election. All four face state charges in Georgia related to election interference, and Chesebro and Powell pleaded guilty.

Finding people 'that deserve a break'

Martin went even further in an extended interview Nov. 10 with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon on his “War Room” podcast.

Martin said that as pardon attorney and also as head of DOJ’s “weaponization working group,” he’s leading an extensive effort to identify a broader swath of people that Trump believes were wronged by either of the last two Democratic presidents.

Martin said that in a meeting in the Oval Office, the president told him to find people “that deserve a break,” including those “weaponized against us by Biden. And Obama, by the way.”

“And so the pardon attempts to start to change that, and I think it's the opening” Martin said. “I know because I'm involved in getting to the truth of 2020.”

Martin said the list goes beyond anyone who hasn’t already pardoned in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

He also mentioned the “FACE Act, the pro-lifers,” in apparent reference to anyone charged under a 1994 federal law, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits physically interfering with someone who is getting an abortion or reproductive health services or damaging a related facility.

Trump wants Colorado clerk freed

Also, Martin said, “We’ve been fighting for two months to figure out a path on Tina Peters,” including pressuring Colorado authorities.

Peters, a former Republican clerk and recorder in Colorado who denies that Biden won the 2020 election, was convicted of allowing someone to access data from a secure voting system in attempts to prove baseless election denial conspiracies.

She was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2024 on seven charges involving tampering with Mesa County’s election machines, including attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and first-degree official misconduct.

Trump himself has called for Peter’s release, saying in an Aug. 21 social media post that she’s an “old woman” and “very sick,” and should be freed from prison, threatening “very harsh measures” if she is not released while also repeating his claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Contributing: Bart Jansen

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Trump pardon this 'huge group of Americans' next?

Reporting by Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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