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09-06-2026
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office.
The pardon was dated Thursday and released by the White House late Friday night.
Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, as well as pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.
The Supreme Court in May rejected Buyer’s appeal without comment or noted dissent.
In granting “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon” to Buyer, Trump cited the Republican’s work, both as a judge advocate general in the US Army and as a politician in the US House. Trump described his career as “distinguished and highly productive”.
Buyer said the pardon “corrects a politically motivated prosecution” and that it was “horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit”. He maintains that he is innocent.
Trump used his Truth Social media platform on May 31 to share a pair of letters requesting a presidential pardon for Buyer, a lawyer and Gulf War veteran who left office in 2011.
He was a House prosecutor at Democratic President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial, and in 2016, he served on Trump’s transition team, focusing on veterans’ issues.
A letter signed by more than 40 former Republicans in Congress said Buyer was “targeted by the deep state” because of his involvement in Clinton’s trial.
“Like you, Mr President, Steve has been the victim of lawfare conducted by the Biden Administration,” they wrote in the April 2025 letter.
A second letter, from five current House Republicans, said pardoning Buyer would bring justice to his case. The June 2025 letter was signed by Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Ken Calvert of California, Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Pete Sessions of Texas.
Buyer, 67, was convicted in connection with insider trading involving the $26.5bn merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, and illegal trades in the management consulting company Navigant when his client Guide-house was set to acquire it in a deal publicly disclosed weeks later.
The US Constitution gives the president broad power to grant pardons for federal crimes. A pardon does not erase a recipient’s criminal record but can be seen as an act of mercy or justice.
Pardon letter cites; acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, and upon the advice and recommendation of the individuals listed below, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to Stephen E. Buyer. As highlighted by the individuals listed below, Mr Buyer’s career serving as a Judge Advocate General in the United States Army and as a Member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Indiana was distinguished and highly productive. The Attorney General shall administer and effectuate the immediate issuance of a certificate of pardon to the individual named herein.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
