Nikola founder Trevor Milton receives full pardon from President Trump

Nikola founder Trevor Milton said in a social media post that he's received "a full and unconditional pardon" by President Trump, adding that the president called him personally to inform him. 

"I just got a call from the president of the United States on my phone that he signed a full and unconditional pardon of innocence," Milton said in an Instagram video message posted Thursday. "I am free."

In December 2023, Milton was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of exaggerating claims about his electric vehicle company's production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, which prosecutors claimed caused investors to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Milton's conviction came after a short seller called Hindenburg Research alleged in 2020 that the EV maker had misrepresented its technology.