Legal experts are warning that President Donald Trump may have unintentionally issued a sweeping pardon that could shield not only Rudy Giuliani and other top allies, but any U.S. citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 – including people who cast multiple ballots on his behalf.
The revelation comes as a Pennsylvania man charged with voting twice argued that Trump’s November 7 pardon of Giuliani and others involved in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss wipes out his case entirely, The Guardian reported Tuesday.
Attorneys for Matthew Alan Laiss – accused of voting in both Pennsylvania and Florida, both votes cast for Trump, according to court filings – told a federal judge that the pardon’s language is so expansive it covers their client. The pardon applies to conduct “relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official, in connection with the 2020 presidential election,” and explicitly states it is “not limited” to those named.
That language is so broad, Lace’s lawyers wrote, arguing the charges must be dismissed.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, appeared to agree, telling the Guardian in an interview: “It’s quite plausible to read this and suggest that anyone involved in voting for slates of presidential electors in 2020 has now been pardoned.”
“Here you’ve got kind of a broad set of conduct and an undefined group of individuals who are protected,” he added.
Former DOJ pardon attorney called the pardon’s wording “not very precise” and said it could force courts to untangle its scope case by case – a problem she blamed on the administration’s refusal to rely on experts in the pardon office.
“A blanket pardon for all voter fraud in 2020 would be a paradoxical and somewhat embarrassing result for the Trump administration,” according to the Guardian. “Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, but Trump has nonetheless used the specter of it to champion restrictions on mail-in voting and to advocate for voter ID and same-day registration.”
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