Could Derek Chauvin be pardoned? Conservative commentator launches effort to petition Trump

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has publicly called for the president to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal crimes. Here’s what that could mean.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has publicly called for the president to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal crimes related to George Floyd’s 2020 death – drawing derision from the Minnesota attorney general who helped put Chauvin in prison but amplification from one of Trump’s most powerful advisers. Shapiro’s proposal could spring to mind several questions, including: “Could a president do that?” (Answer: Yes); and, “What would it matter, since Chauvin also is in prison on state charges?” (Answer: It’s complicated). Shapiro’s effort to solicit a pardon for Chauvin, a White man convicted of murdering a Black man in a case that sparked massive nationwide protests over the way police treat people of color, comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to push back on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and what some see as gains made toward racial justice since Floyd’s death. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump touted his administration’s forceful crackdown on DEI programs, and vowed “our country will be woke no longer.” And a congressman recently introduced a bill that would withhold some federal funding in Washington, DC, if the mayor does not remove the district’s Black Lives Matter mural and rename the eponymous plaza located near the White House. In an interview with CNN Thursday, one of Floyd’s brothers, Terrence, said the call to pardon Chauvin has been hard for his relatives who have slowly begun to heal five years after George’s death. “We were supposed to see progress,” Terrence Floyd said. “So many people promised things, especially if we (are) going to go with the DEI, so many things was promised to us as a people – not just to Black and brown people – as a people. And they’re backpedaling.”