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Donald Trump<\/a> has reportedly said he will issue pardons en masse to his closest advisers at the end of his second presidency, promising them in casual conversations over the last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval [Office],\u201d the president reportedly said in a recent meeting, garnering laughs from the room, according to a Wall Street Journal report<\/a> citing an anonymous source.<\/p>\n The publication reported that another source had said Trump used the line in an earlier conversation, but with a smaller radius: he said he would pardon anyone who came within 10ft of the presidential office. Other sources claim Trump has floated hosting a news conference at the end of his term where he will announce mass pardons.<\/p>\n In response to the report, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: \u201cThe Wall Street Journal should learn to take a joke. However, the president\u2019s pardon power is absolute.\u201d<\/p>\n Since starting his second presidency, Trump has granted clemency<\/a> to more than 1,800 people. On his first day in office, Trump gave unconditional pardons<\/a> to 1,500 people who had participated in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack carried out by his supporters, including those charged or convicted with assaulting or resisting law enforcement during the riot.<\/p>\n A Trump-appointed federal prosecutor recently had to ask a judge<\/a> to deny a dismissal request from a man who is accused of planting two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees the night before the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n The man said his charges should be cleared because of Trump\u2019s widespread pardons of those involved in the attack \u2013 and that his charges are \u201cinextricably and demonstrably tethered\u201d to the riots. The judge overseeing the case has not responded to the man\u2019s request.<\/p>\n Many of Trump\u2019s acts of clemency so far have been framed as rebukes to the justice system after Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 to end his first presidency. The Biden administration sought to prosecute Trump for various alleged offenses before he returned to power, including for illicitly seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Trump in October pardoned<\/a> Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who had been sentenced to four months in prison after he pleaded guilty for not maintaining an anti-money laundering program.<\/p>\n Earlier in the year, Binance accepted a $2bn transaction from the Emirati investment fund through World Liberty Financial, the crypto enterprise run by Trump\u2019s family. The transaction helped legitimize the family\u2019s digital currency.<\/p>\n In a statement at the time, the White House said that Zhao had been \u201cprosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump also granted clemency<\/a> to former congressman George Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. The president commuted Santos\u2019s seven-year prison sentence, allowing him to be released after three months behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cHe lied like hell,\u201d Trump said<\/a> at the time. \u201cBut he was 100% for Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n