Trump pardons former Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery, blames ‘corrupt and weaponized Biden DOJ’

Trump announced the move on Memorial Day on Truth Social, saying Jenkins was targeted unfairly by what he described as a politicized Justice Department from the Biden DOJ.

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump wrote in the post.

Jenkins, who served as sheriff for over ten years before losing reelection in 2023, was convicted in December of accepting more than $70,000 in bribes. Prosecutors said Jenkins appointed local businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs in exchange for both cash and campaign donations, according to The Hill.

Some of those payments, according to the Department of Justice, came from undercover FBI agents.

Jenkins was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and seven counts of bribery involving programs that receive federal funds.

In the same Truth Social post, Trump said, “during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade. As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence.”

Trump added, “This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in Jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon. He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”