Trump's clemency erased $119 million owed to crime victims, CBS News finds

President Trump's clemency orders have erased at least $119 million in unpaid restitution since January 2025, a CBS News investigation published Tuesday found ¹⁵. Restitution is money a judge orders a convicted person to repay those harmed by the crime. Clemency is the president's power to forgive a conviction with a pardon or to shorten a sentence with a commutation.

CBS reviewed court judgments in more than 160 clemency orders issued from January 2025 through October 2026 ²³. Its count leaves out more than 1,500 grants tied to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol ²³.

On tapeCBS News · Oct 27

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In all, about $1.08 billion in federal fines and restitution was affected ²³. That includes about $119.4 million owed directly to victims and nearly $120 million in fines meant for the federal Crime Victims Fund ²³. Clemency also halted prosecutors' requests for about $665.8 million in restitution before judges ruled ³⁴.

Justice Department records cited by CBS put the restitution erased by President Biden's clemency orders at about $14,000 over four years ²³. Most of those cases were commutations that left financial penalties in place ³.

From Channel GOPRaskin: Maxwell got the Trump hotel treatmentJamie Raskin · 12 plays · captioned, with the source named

The people and businesses left waiting

CBS opened with Thomas Franco, who put almost $4 million into Ozy Media over five years ¹. A federal jury convicted founder Carlos Watson of fraud in July 2024, and a judge ordered him to repay investors almost $37 million, millions of it to Franco ¹. Trump's clemency grant wiped away that restitution ¹.

Franco does not dispute the president's power. "Clearly the president has constitutional authority to grant clemency, and I certainly don't question that authority," he told CBS ¹.

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authority and accountability are two very different things.

The largest single debt erased was nearly $49 million owed by siblings Andres and Adriana Camberos, who were convicted of defrauding food makers ². The money was owed to 19 companies, from $22 million for Mars Wrigley to $17,800 for True Made Foods ⁴. A White House official called it a political prosecution ².

Small firms felt it too. Abraham Kamarck, who owns a veteran-owned business that was owed $17,800, said, "We've just constantly been fighting to survive" ². Among identified victims, 56% were private businesses, 23% were state and federal agencies, and 21% were individuals, according to a summary of the CBS findings ⁴.

David Gentile, convicted in a $1.6 billion fraud, served 12 days of a seven-year sentence before Trump commuted it ²³. CBS said the order also freed him from paying restitution ²³. Prosecutors said the scheme targeted more than 10,000 investors ¹¹. One of them, three-time Trump voter Jeffrey Rosenbery, lost $250,000 that he said he had "put away for my grandchildren" ².

Prosecutors reportedly gathered evidence that Gentile discussed paying $2.5 million or more for clemency, and Justice Department political appointees reportedly halted the inquiry ²³. Those are allegations, drawn from unnamed sources and from New York Times reporting ²³. Gentile's lawyer did not respond to CBS, and Frank Mann, a retired priest who reportedly corresponded with Gentile about clemency, denied involvement ²³. When the commutation was announced, a White House official disputed the case against Gentile and said the government could not tie fraudulent statements to him at trial ¹¹.

Medicare and nursing home cases

Some recipients come from the health care business that older Americans depend on. Lawrence Duran's American Therapeutic Corp. generated about $205 million in false claims and roughly $87 million in Medicare payouts, according to a release from the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat ¹². Trump cut Duran's 50-year sentence to time served in May 2025, and the release says the order ended any further fines or restitution, including an $87,533,863.46 restitution order ¹².

That number needs care. Newsom's office says its figures are not confirmed remaining balances and may include amounts shared with co-defendants ¹². Summaries of the CBS review do not list Duran's case, and they name the Camberos debt as the largest erased ².

A House Democratic staff report also says nursing home owner Joseph Schwartz reportedly spent nearly $1.1 million lobbying for clemency while serving a sentence for a $38 million payroll-tax fraud ⁶.

The White House answer

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis defended the orders as a matter of presidential power ²³.

exercises his constitutional authority to issue pardons and commutations at his discretion

Bis also said that "anyone spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money" ²³. In individual cases, officials described sentences or penalties as excessive or politically driven ⁴.

Former Nikola chief executive Trevor Milton was pardoned about two weeks after prosecutors sought $660.8 million in restitution from him ³. He and his wife had given almost $3 million to pro-Trump groups about five months earlier ³. Milton said the pardon "was not tied to anything," and a White House official said donations played no role ².

The pattern is what Democrats are targeting. CBS identified at least 18 people relieved of fines or restitution whose cases involved advocacy from Trump-connected figures or donations to his campaign ³. About 70% of second-term clemency actions bypassed the Justice Department's pardon office, or 92% when Jan. 6 cases are counted ⁴⁸. Ed Martin, the department's pardon attorney until Sept. 4, has denied that a transactional pardon market exists ⁸.

What the numbers do and do not show

These totals are ceilings. Georgia State University law professor Caren Morrison notes that public records do not show how much defendants had already paid ⁷. Victims can still file civil lawsuits, but those are slow and costly, and clemency ended the government's ability to collect restitution for up to 20 years after release ⁴.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats put the broader cost at nearly $1.7 billion, a figure that also counts forfeitures ⁶. Morrison says about $700 million of that had not yet been officially imposed by courts ⁷. She writes that no administration before Trump's second term came near the billion-dollar mark ⁷.

A note on sourcing: the full CBS interactive report would not load for us. This account relies on its opening section, as republished on Yahoo, along with detailed summaries by other outlets ¹²³⁴.

Why Tuesday matters

That matters because Democrats are in the minority in both chambers and cannot compel documents or testimony ⁸. They have sent letters to more than a dozen clemency recipients and asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin about possible roles in pardons, but they can only request answers ⁹¹⁰.

they've basically converted the president's pardon power into a for-profit industry,

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he does not expect voluntary cooperation: "I don't think any of these people will come and appear voluntarily" ⁸. He says lawmakers are preparing investigations into "everybody along the assembly line of clemency for cash" ⁹. CBS reported that clemency is expected to be a priority if Democrats win the House ⁸.

presidential clemency is supposed to be an instrument of justice and mercy, not another maga get-rich-quick-scheme where access goes to the highest bidder

The Record

1. Nov 26, 2025David Gentile leaves federal custody after Trump commutes his seven-year sentence; he began serving it on Nov. 14 ¹¹
2. May 7, 2026Democrats send letters to more than a dozen clemency recipients asking about possible pay-to-play dealings ¹⁰
3. Aug 21, 2026House Judiciary Democrats release a staff report saying clemency erased nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures ⁶
4. Sep 14, 2026Senior Democrats vow to investigate the market around Trump's pardons after a CBS report on pardon brokers ⁸
5. Oct 27, 2026CBS News reports that Trump's clemency orders erased at least $119 million in unpaid restitution since January 2025 ¹⁵

Sources

1. CBS News via Yahoo, “In Trump's pardon economy, victims lost out on $119M in restitution” (2026-10-27). yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trumps-pardon-economy-victi
2. Raw Story, “Victims furious as staggering hidden price tag of Trump's booming pardon spree revealed” (2026-10-27). rawstory.com/donald-trump-pardon-2678152034/
3. IBTimes UK, “Crime Victims Left Outraged as Staggering Hidden Price Tag of Donald Trump Clemency Spree Is Revealed” (2026-10-28). ibtimes.co.uk/trump-clemency-affected-1-billion-fines-restit
4. Poli Alert, “Trump Pardons Erased $119 Million Owed To Crime Victims” (2026-10-28). polialert.com/political-news/trump-pardons-erased-119-millio
5. CBS News, “Trump erased $119 million in restitution for crime victims, CBS investigation finds” (2026-10-27). cbsnews.com/video/trump-erased-119-million-in-restitution-fo
6. House Judiciary Committee Democrats, “New Judiciary Democrats Report Exposes MAGA's Cash-for-Clemency Racket Which Gives Unrepentant Criminals a New Lease on Life and Leaves Victims in the Dust” (2026-08-21). democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ne
7. Salon / The Conversation, “Other presidents have let white-collar criminals dodge financial penalties – but not like Trump” (2026-09-27). salon.com/2026/09/27/other-presidents-have-let-white-collar-
8. CBS News, “Top Democrats pledge investigation into Trump pardon brokers if party regains control of Congress” (2026-09-14). cbsnews.com/news/democrats-pledge-investigation-trump-pardon
9. CBS News, “RFK Jr. and Lee Zeldin pressed by Democrats on possible roles in Trump pardons” (2026-10-09). cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-lee-zeldin-democrats-congress-trump-
10. CBS News, “Trump pardon recipients face congressional investigation over "pay-to-play" questions” (2026-05-07). cbsnews.com/news/trump-pardon-recipients-democrats-congressi
11. NBC News, “Trump commutes 7-year prison sentence of former private equity CEO David Gentile days after his sentence began” (2025-12-01). nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-commutes-7-year-priso
12. Office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “Trump pardons wipe nearly $2 billion in victim repayment and taxpayer recovery for Medicare and tax fraud, and more” (2026-03-05). gov.ca.gov/2026/03/05/trumpcriminals3/

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