Trump Pardoned a $1.67 Million Donor, Blocking $660.8 Million Sought for Fraud Victims

Trump Stopped the Criminal Repayment Process

President Donald Trump pardoned Nikola founder Trevor Milton on March 27, 2025, two weeks after Trump's own Justice Department asked a judge to make Milton repay $660.8 million to defrauded investors.¹²³ Milton had given $1.67 million to two committees supporting Trump's 2024 election effort.⁴⁵ Explaining the pardon the next day, Trump described Milton as "one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president", and said he did not know Milton.⁶⁷ With the pardon, Trump gave a political supporter a major financial and personal benefit and took a repayment remedy away from the people that supporter defrauded.²⁴⁵⁶³⁷

A jury had convicted Milton of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, and Judge Edgardo Ramos had sentenced him to four years in prison.⁸¹ Milton remained free while appealing, so the pardon spared him from serving that sentence.⁷ Ramos had ordered restitution but had not yet fixed its amount.³ Because of the pardon, CNBC reported, he could not order restitution of any kind.⁷ Trump also expressly remitted the court's financial penalties.²

An October 6, 2026 congressional letter cited Reuters' June 11 report that, days before the pardon, Trump told Milton to thank Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for convincing him to grant it.⁹

Executive Grant of Clemency, United States v. Milton, No. 1:21-cr-478²

remission of any and all fines, penalties, forfeitures, and restitution ordered by the court:

The Money Came Before the Pardon

Milton gave the money after his conviction and before his pardon.⁴⁸¹ FEC records show $750,000 to MAHA Alliance on September 18, 2024, and $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee on October 10, 2024: $1,670,000 in all.⁴ MAHA Alliance said in an October 28 release that its purpose was to persuade Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s supporters to vote for Trump.⁵ Trump 47, a joint fundraising committee, redistributed its gift to Republican Party committees.⁴

Milton also gave $177,900 to the Kennedy Victory Fund 2024 and smaller sums to other committees.⁴

On October 6, 2026, Senators Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal and Representatives Dave Min and Mary Gay Scanlon asked Kennedy whether he had sought Milton's pardon and knew about his political contributions.⁹ They requested written answers by October 20, 2026.⁹

A Truck That Rolled Downhill

Milton promoted as a working breakthrough a truck that did not work.⁸ He claimed that the Nikola One prototype "fully functions and works, which is really incredible".⁸ According to the Justice Department's sentencing account, the prototype lacked gears, motors and other essential systems.⁸ For a video in which it appeared to drive under its own power, the truck was towed up a hill and rolled down after the driver released the brakes.⁸ The video presented gravity as working machinery.⁸ Milton also falsely claimed Nikola was producing hydrogen at reduced cost when it was producing none, and described largely cancelable reservations as binding orders worth billions.⁸

The SEC alleged in a July 29, 2021 complaint that Milton reaped tens of millions of dollars in personal benefits by deceiving retail investors.¹⁰ A jury convicted him after a one-month trial.⁸ On December 18, 2023, Ramos imposed four years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $1 million fine and forfeiture of a Utah property, the Wasatch Creek Ranch.⁸³

The Losses Were Measured

The government's experts calculated, from transaction data, approximately $267.7 million in combined retail-investor losses at TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab and Robinhood alone.³ From those they estimated total retail-investor losses of $660.8 million to $673.6 million.³ Milton argued that the loss was zero.³ Ramos adopted the government's calculation of $660.8 million or more at sentencing.³ Even Milton's own expert conceded losses of at least $108 million, prosecutors wrote, citing Ramos.³

Prosecutors said in 2021 that some investors "suffered tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, including, in certain cases, the loss of their retirement savings or funds that they had borrowed to invest in Nikola", CNBC reported.⁷

Peter Hicks, a separate wire-fraud victim, sold Milton a Utah ranch; Milton induced him to accept Nikola stock options along with $8.5 million in cash.³ Restrictions kept Hicks from exercising the options before the fraud emerged, and by December 1, 2020, their value had fallen to approximately $973,473.³ Prosecutors put his loss at $15,174,698.70, what the options would have netted him if exercisable when the sale closed.³ Prosecutors said the options expired unexercised and sought their full value at closing.³

Investors and Hicks Lost a Criminal Remedy

After negotiations failed, federal prosecutors asked Ramos on March 14, 2025, to set restitution at $660.8 million for retail investors and $15,174,698.70 for Hicks, plus prejudgment interest.³

Two weeks later, Trump remitted the financial penalties and blocked criminal restitution for investors and Hicks.²⁷

Days later, Milton told 12News he would not repay investors.¹¹ He confirmed selling more than $300 million in Nikola shares in 2021, and said he was open to helping investors in future ventures.¹¹

Broad Power, a Claimed Injustice

The Constitution gives the President broad authority to pardon federal offenses, and clemency can correct injustice even after a conviction.¹²¹³ Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 74 that the pardon power should temper the severity of criminal law.¹³

Trump said Milton had been persecuted for supporting him, and also said he did not know Milton.⁶⁷ Of his supporters, he said, "they went after him".⁶ FOX 13's CNN report said he alleged this "without evidence".⁶ Trump also told reporters, "I think he was exonerated".⁷ Milton denied that his donations played any role, 12News reported.¹¹ CBS News reported that an anonymous source close to Kennedy had heard him privately say he would not advocate for pardons.¹⁴ The donations and pardon document a sequence, not a proven agreement to exchange one for the other.⁴²¹¹

After the pardon, Milton voluntarily withdrew his criminal appeal.¹⁵ The district court lifted his bail and ordered his special assessment refunded, but left his conviction in place.¹⁵ Trump secured relief from punishment; the court did not exonerate Milton.²¹⁵

Civil Accountability Survived

On February 5, 2026, the Ninth Circuit upheld a separate $167.727 million arbitration award for Nikola against Milton.¹⁶

On September 10, 2026, Judge Gregory B. Williams upheld a bankruptcy plan under which Milton would receive nothing on his roughly $70 million claim against Nikola and could not use that claim to reduce what he owed the company.¹⁵ Williams ruled that the pardon did not erase the misconduct proved in arbitration.¹⁵ Bloomberg Law reported on October 8 that Milton was challenging that ruling.¹⁷

The SEC, however, ended its civil case against Milton on September 11, 2025, by joining a dismissal with prejudice covering the conduct alleged in the complaint through the date the stipulation was filed, and called it an exercise of its discretion.¹⁸¹⁹

Separately, prosecutors said in March 2025 that the SEC was already setting up a Fair Fund connected to its settlement with Nikola to compensate investors.³

Mercy for a Donor, a Lost Remedy for Victims

The Constitution provides impeachment and removal for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.¹² Hamilton described impeachable offenses as arising from "the abuse or violation of some public trust".²⁰ At Virginia's ratifying convention, George Mason warned about abuse of pardons, and James Madison answered that impeachment was available when a President used the power to shelter himself.²¹

Trump personally used that power to spare a donor to his election effort from prison and stop his own Justice Department's effort to obtain $660.8 million for defrauded investors, plus a separate payment for Hicks.²¹⁴⁵⁷³ Civil claims that survived do not restore the criminal remedy he took away.⁷¹⁶¹⁵

The impeachment charge here is abuse of the public trust. Trump gave a major financial and personal benefit to a political supporter while taking a repayment remedy away from the people that supporter defrauded.²⁴⁵⁶³⁷ That choice is why this pardon belongs in a case for impeachment.