Donald Trump has utilized his presidential authority to pardon a former Congressman convicted of insider trading. Stephen Buyer, a former US representative and Republican from Indiana, was sentenced to 22 months in 2023 for securities fraud relating to insider trading in 2018, involving T-Mobile US prior to a $23 billion merger with Sprint.
The White House announced the pardon without specifying a reason, highlighting Buyer’s service as a US Army judge advocate general and a productive member of Congress. Trump granted Buyer a full and unconditional pardon based on the advice of 52 current and former members of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
This pardon is part of a series of controversial pardons by Trump, including the release of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking, and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, convicted of enabling criminal activities on the cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Buyer, who served in the House from 1993 to 2011, was found guilty of securities fraud in March 2023 and sentenced to 22 months in prison in September. Prosecutors revealed that Buyer engaged in illegal trades based on inside information about the telecom merger talks in 2018, profiting over $100,000 from Sprint stock trades and more than $200,000 from Navigant Consulting Inc. stock trades.
Despite his denial of trading on inside information during his trial, prosecutors argued for a three-year prison term, citing Buyer’s breach of trust and false testimony. The US Supreme Court declined to hear Buyer’s appeal in May of this year.