A Trump supporter accused of voter fraud may have accidentally been pardoned by the 79-year-old president.
Matthew Alan Laiss, 31, has been charged with voting twice—once in Pennsylvania, once in Florida—in the 2020 presidential election.
Laiss’s counsel is arguing that Trump issued a sweeping pardon for crimes tied to the 2020 general election when he used broad language to absolve his allies, like Rudy Giuliani, of any wrongdoing at the federal level.
The pardon, signed Nov. 9, says it “applies to any U.S. citizen for 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.”
Lawyers for Laiss write that such language means their client should be let off the hook, The Guardian reports, since his votes “advoca[ted] for [a] slate or proposed slate of presidential electors.”
“By its plain language, the pardon extends to Mr Laiss, and his motion to dismiss should therefore be granted,” his lawyers wrote, according to the paper.
If Trump’s inadvertent pardon holds, there is a silver lining for the president: lawyers for Laiss say that both of his votes were for Trump, who won both states.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told The Guardian that it is plausible the pardon applies to Laiss, which would allow him to avoid a sentence of up to five years in prison if he were to be convicted.
“Here you’ve got kind of a broad set of conduct and an undefined group of individuals who are protected,” Muller said. “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.”
For now, Laiss’ indictment is still standing. Court documents say he moved from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Florida in August 2020. He first voted by mail in Pennsylvania, then again in person on Election Day in Florida.
Laiss has pleaded not guilty. The Eastern District of Pennsylvania has yet to respond to his lawyers’ motion asking for his case to be dismissed as a result of the pardon.
Trump’s hand-picked pardon attorney, Ed Martin, has been among his most controversial nominees.
Martin, a 55-year-old graduate of Saint Louis University’s law school, raged earlier this month that the 2020 election was the “most fraudulent ever” and promised that prosecutions would follow for those who broke the law. That suggests he had no clue that his pardon for the likes of Giuliani may allow for someone like Laiss to walk free.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House, Department of Justice and Laiss’s lawyers for comment.
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