Trump pardons former congressman Stephen Buyer

President Donald Trump has pardoned Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison after being convicted of insider trading tied to corporate deals he learned about after leaving office.

The White House released the pardon late Friday. It was dated Thursday and described as “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon.” Buyer, 67, had been sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison for illegal stock trades made while he was working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was also ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, the amount prosecutors said represented his illegal gains, and to pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.

The Supreme Court rejected Buyer’s appeal in May without comment or noted dissent.

In granting the pardon, Trump cited Buyer’s service as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Army and his years representing Indiana in the House, calling him a “distinguished and highly productive” congressman.

Buyer said the pardon “corrects a politically motivated prosecution” and said it was “horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit.” He has maintained his innocence.

Buyer was convicted in connection with stock trades involving two corporate transactions. One involved the $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018. The other involved trades in the management consulting company Navigant before Buyer’s client, Guidehouse, was set to acquire it in a deal publicly disclosed weeks later.

Trump had publicly shared support for a pardon before granting it. On May 31, he posted two letters requesting clemency for Buyer, a lawyer and Gulf War veteran who left Congress in 2011. Buyer was a House prosecutor during President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial and later served on Trump’s 2016 transition team, where he focused on veterans’ issues.

One letter, signed by more than 40 former Republican members of Congress, said Buyer was “targeted by the deep state” because of his role in Clinton’s impeachment trial. “Like you, Mr. President, Steve has been the victim of lawfare conducted by the Biden Administration,” they wrote in the April 2025 letter.

A second letter, dated June 2025 and signed by five current House Republicans, said a pardon would bring justice to Buyer’s case. The signers were Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Ken Calvert of California, Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Pete Sessions of Texas.

The list of current and former Republican lawmakers who supported Buyer was included in the pardon posted on the White House website.

The U.S. Constitution gives presidents broad power to grant pardons for federal crimes. A pardon does not erase a recipient’s criminal record, but it can be used as an act of mercy or justice.