Trump Official Insists Giuliani Pardon ‘Can Apply To State Charges’

Ed Martin, the chief pardon attorney in the Department of Justice, stated that President Donald Trump’s federal pardons could potentially shield Rudy Giuliani and others from state and local crimes related to the 2020 presidential election.

During a Monday interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room program, Martin discussed Trump’s decision to grant what were largely seen as symbolic pardons to Giuliani and 76 other individuals. These pardons were connected to alleged ballot fraud crimes stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Many of those granted federal pardons were facing state charges in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin. These cases involve schemes using slates of fake electors as part of attempts to challenge the election outcome.

Bannon asked Martin, “How does this go, because these are state charges, and you’ve got some pretty radical AGs, particularly in Arizona and some of these other states?”

Martin responded, “A couple things. One, there’s a broad argument that the pardon can apply to state charges. I leave it to others to fight it out, but in the history of the country, at the very beginning, pardons operated against any crime against the United States, and at that early period, you were pardoning local charges too.”

However, Martin acknowledged that courts are unlikely to dismiss state and local charges solely based on a federal pardon. He explained, “If you charge somebody for forgery or obstruction of justice, and the underlying crime that you’re claiming is forgery or obstruction of justice is definitively — the government says it wasn’t a crime — you take the wind out of the sails of the argument.”

He added, “What are you doing? And what becomes clear, and should be clear, is that they’re doing this for politics.”

It is important to note that a pardon does not mean the individual was not guilty of a crime, contrary to Martin’s claim. According to the Department of Justice website, “A pardon is an expression of the President’s forgiveness and can be granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime.”

Martin also insisted that the local prosecutors who charged Trump’s allies “deserve to be named and shamed and held accountable in every way. It’s truly, truly, the conduct is evil,” he said.

“I got to tell you, people argued against it internally and externally. And the president was like, ‘We got to, like I say all the time. No MAGA left behind. We’re not in a time where we could debate this.’”
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/11/trump-official-insists-giuliani-pardon-can

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