Anyone trying to explain President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld this week would be hard-pressed to find a reason in either man’s words or deeds.
Trump is the Republican, MAGA-hat-wearing populist who revels in mocking Democrats, while Sittenfeld is the liberal Democrat who once called Trump a “buffoonish carnival barker.”
And yet, despite their obvious differences, something or someone motivated Trump to use one of his greatest presidential powers on Sittenfeld’s behalf.
Neither Trump nor Sittenfeld is saying who or what may have provided that motivation.
But the two men are connected in at least a few ways that could have drawn Trump’s attention to Sittenfeld’s political corruption case and opened the door to his decision to grant him a “full and unconditional pardon.”
Their most obvious common ground is personal familiarity with a federal prosecution they deemed unfair and politically motivated.
Before returning to the White House, Trump faced charges related to his handling of classified documents and his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. Sittenfeld, meanwhile, got a 16-month prison sentence in a bribery and extortion case that derailed a promising political career.
Although Trump has given no indication he’s familiar with the details of Sittenfeld’s case, the president has complained repeatedly about what he describes as the “weaponization” of the legal system against him and others.
Just one day before announcing Sittenfeld’s pardon, Trump pardoned a Virginia sheriff convicted on corruption charges, claiming he was “a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice.”
He’s also recently pardoned a state senator in Tennessee, a city council member in Las Vegas, two reality TV stars and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who, like Sittenfeld, is a Democrat.
“Trump is just committed to emptying the prisons of anyone convicted of political corruption,” said David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati who’s been critical of Trump’s pardons. “I think that’s the bottom line.”
Most Trump pardons go to Republicans, but not all
The effect of Trump’s pardons, Niven said, is to undermine the government’s ability to prosecute corruption cases while also numbing the public to bad behavior by politicians. In this view, it doesn’t matter that Sittenfeld is a Democrat and Trump is a Republican.
“This is much more about corruption than politics,” Niven said.
Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University who specializes in presidential powers, said Trump showed in his first term a willingness to help people who shared his political beliefs. This time, he said, the president has taken a keen interest in anyone who’s faced a prosecution related to public corruption.
“He’s been pardoning people he identifies with,” Kalt said.
Most of those pardons have gone to Republicans or, in Blagojevich’s case, to people who’ve publicly praised Trump. Trump advisor Ed Martin explained Trump’s approach to pardons this way in a social media post this week: “No MAGA left behind.”
Sittenfeld doesn’t appear to fall into that category. He ran for office as a Democrat and has not publicly said anything supportive of Trump.
On the contrary, when Trump was on his way to the Republican nomination in 2015, Sittenfeld posted a short YouTube video critical of Trump and his rhetoric. “Donald Trump has gone from being a buffoonish carnival barker to something darker and far more dangerous,” he said. “The fearmongering, the wanton bigotry, the calls for mass deportation, ethnic registries and the scapegoating of religious minorities – this isn’t politics as usual.”
But Trump might have reason to look past such comments, said Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford University law professor who specializes in constitutional law. She said pardoning someone with whom he has little else in common might serve a purpose for Trump.
She said it’s easier for the president to argue the public corruption pardons he’s granting are based on legal reasons, rather than political reasons, if he gives them to both Republicans and Democrats.
“It helps to legitimize his pardons of Republicans if he can say he’s pardoned at least some people accused of similar things who are Democrats,” Meyler said.
Who made the case for Sittenfeld to Trump?
How did Sittenfeld become one of the lucky few Democrats to make the list? Meyler said most people who get pardons have an advocate, either a lawyer or a prominent person known to the president, who can make the case for the president’s intervention.
There are at least two lawyers who could fit that bill. After Sittenfeld’s indictment in 2020, he turned for help to James Burnham, a well-known Republican attorney and expert in corruption cases who worked in both the first and second Trump administration. Most recently, Burnham served as a general counsel in billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Another lawyer with ties to both Trump and Sittenfeld is Yaakov Roth, who argued Sittenfeld’s case on appeal and now works as Trump’s deputy assistant attorney general in the civil division of the Department of Justice.
It’s not known whether Burnham or Roth, neither of whom could be reached to comment, or anyone else brought Sittenfeld’s case to Trump’s attention. Other prominent Sittenfeld supporters either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment when asked about the pardon and whether they’d reached out to the president on his behalf.
Dick Rosenthal, a Cincinnati philanthropist who in 2021 signed an open letter critical of Sittenfeld’s prosecution, said he wouldn’t comment because, “I don’t think it would be helpful to your readers, or to P.G., or to my family.”
Political donors and supporters have for decades been beneficiaries of presidential pardons, but it’s become more difficult under Trump to track money flowing to the president or to his family.
Trump recently hosted a dinner and White House tour for investors who’d bought millions of dollars of $TRUMP memecoins, which benefits the Trump family’s crypto business. Some of those who attended said they hoped their purchase of the memecoins might give them an opportunity to influence Trump on matters they care about.
Niven said Trump’s mingling of family business and the presidency is another reason the president is eager to attack public corruption cases like Sittenfeld’s.
“This is just about normalizing political corruption,” Niven said. “It’s very useful for him, as he auctions off the White House to the highest crypto bidder, that no one pays a price for political corruption.”
Kalt, the Michigan State law professor, said questions about pardons and the motivation for granting them are nothing new. It’s the speed and scope of Trump’s that have drawn so much attention and criticism.
Ultimately, though, the president doesn’t have to explain his reasons for pardoning anyone, including Sittenfeld. The pardon power requires no Congressional oversight and no judicial review. It’s the president’s alone to use as he sees fit.
“Ideally, there would be transparency and accountability,” Kalt said. “But legally the president has the power to do this however he wants.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: trump pardon of sittenfeld shocked many, but the move fits a pattern