President Trump pardoned a Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery on Monday, the newest occasion of Trump utilizing his presidential pardon energy to assist his supporters.
Scott Jenkins, 53, was the sheriff of Culpeper County till 2023, when he was charged with accepting greater than $75,000 in bribes handy out badges and weapons to native businessmen as volunteer deputy sheriffs.
Jenkins was scheduled to start serving a 10-year jail sentence on Tuesday. As an alternative, Trump introduced the pardon and criticized former President Biden’s administration.
Culpeper County, which sits about 50 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., first elected Jenkins as sheriff in 2011, a place he maintained till his electoral defeat in 2023. The feds stated that in Jenkins’ tenure, he solicited and accepted bribes to call a minimum of eight folks as volunteer deputies.
Two undercover FBI brokers paid Jenkins a complete of $15,000 to obtain badges and weapons, giving them police powers within the 55,000-person county despite the fact that they supplied no proof of regulation enforcement coaching, solely money.
Trump has pardoned hundreds of supporters, together with all 1,500 folks accused in reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, since taking workplace in January.
