On May 28, Trump pardoned former Representative Michael Grimm.
Grimm was convicted in November 2014 for tax fraud and other charges relating to his Manhattan restaurant. He not only robbed the state of New York, but committed perjury.
They alleged Grimm employed unauthorized workers whom he paid “off the books” in cash, took deliberate steps to obstruct the federal and state governments from collecting taxes he properly owed, cheated the state of New York out of workers’ compensation insurance premiums, caused numerous false business and personal tax returns to be filed for several years and lied under oath to cover up his crimes.
CBS News
Grimm was also indicted for campaign finance violations during the same year as his 2014 tax fraud conviction.
Although the pardon was full, Grimm himself pleaded guilty one month after his reelection to one count of tax fraud. He would then serve eight months in prison, being released in May 2016.
Author’s note: Polo, karma, and anti-elitism
Grimm has not found himself in a pleasant situation, even when the pardon is factored. He lost his attempt at a political comeback in 2018, and the Republican that bested him in the primary would go on to lose to a Democrat.
He found himself in another grim situation in which he was paralyzed from the waist down after a September 2024 polo tournament.
Trump has claimed to oppose elitism. Is the typical Trump voter or the working class at large playing polo? Is the Make America Great Again movement truly a populist one? These are questions that stories such as this spur.
