Trump pardons wiped out restitution owed to fraud victims, reports and Democrats say

A new report puts a $119 million price tag on what crime victims lost when President Trump pardoned people who owed them court-ordered restitution. Restitution is money a judge orders a convicted person to repay victims. We could not load that report, and no source we could read confirms the $119 million figure, so we are not reporting it as fact.

The wider pattern is documented elsewhere. Reporting by ABC News, NBC News and The Washington Post shows that clemency, meaning pardons and sentence cuts, has repeatedly ended debts owed to victims.

What the record shows

Jason Galanis was ordered in 2017 to pay more than $80 million in restitution. Trump commuted his sentence in March 2025, and Galanis then asked to get back about $2 million he had already paid. A federal judge ruled he could not ¹.

Marian Morgan was sentenced in 2013 to nearly 34 years for a Ponzi scheme and ordered to pay $17.5 million, most of it still unpaid. The Washington Post reported that Trump commuted her sentence in May 2025 and waived the remaining fines and restitution ³.

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Trevor Milton, founder of the truck company Nikola, was pardoned in March 2025. Prosecutors had sought $660 million in restitution, but the judge never ordered it because of the pardon ³. Milton and his wife gave $1.8 million to a joint fundraising committee backing Trump's campaign and $750,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC, the Post reported ³.

Who said what

Liz Oyer, a former U.S. pardon attorney, told ABC that the victims are the ones who lose. A White House spokesperson, Harrison Fields, said Trump is "using his pardon power to offer people second chances at life" ¹.

In August 2026, House Judiciary Committee Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland released a staff report. It says pardons have erased nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures ⁴. That is a Democratic estimate. It includes fines and forfeitures, not just money owed to victims, and some of it was never formally ordered.

NBC News counted a smaller total. It found that 87 people and one corporation pardoned in Trump's second term had been ordered to pay more than $298 million in fines and restitution. NBC also said it is not clear whether victims or the government ever received that money ².

Why it matters

The pattern is that people who were convicted of fraud can end up keeping money that victims were told they would get back. Justice Department officials say full recovery of restitution is rare, but experts told ABC that the commutation of restitution payments has no precedent ¹.

Raskin's report also says intermediaries have charged up to $2 million per engagement to seek clemency ⁴. Those are the report's claims.

where access goes to the highest bidder

Victims have one main option: a civil lawsuit. That can be slow and costly. We will update this brief if the $119 million figure can be verified.

The Record

1. Mar 1, 2025Trump commuted Jason Galanis's sentence; a judge later ruled he could not recoup the roughly $2 million he had paid in restitution ¹.
2. Jan 20, 2026NBC reported that Trump's second-term pardon recipients were ordered to pay more than $298 million in fines and restitution ².
3. Aug 21, 2026House Judiciary Democrats released a report estimating nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures erased by pardons ⁴.

Sources

1. ABC News, “Trump's pardons have shortchanged fraud victims of millions of dollars in restitution, lawyers say” (2025-06-12). abcnews.com/US/trumps-pardons-shortchanged-fraud-victims-mil
2. NBC News, “Trump's pardons forgive financial crimes that came with hundreds of millions in punishments” (2026-01-20). nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trumps-pardons-for
3. The Washington Post via Anchorage Daily News, “Trump's pardons wipe out restitution payments to defrauded victims” (2025-12-19). adn.com/nation-world/2025/12/19/trumps-pardons-wipe-out-rest
4. House Judiciary Committee Democrats, “New Judiciary Democrats Report Exposes MAGA's Cash-for-Clemency Racket” (2026-08-21). democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ne

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