Stephen Buyer Gets Full Pardon From Trump
The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump used his authority under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution to give former Republican Indiana Rep. Stephen Buyer a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon.” The move wipes out Buyer’s 2023 federal conviction and the 22-month prison sentence that came with it.
Buyer was a longtime House member who chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and also served as a House prosecutor during former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial. He left Congress and was later found guilty by a jury of using nonpublic information to make trades for his own gain.
The White House described Buyer’s record as a “distinguished and highly productive” career and pointed to his service as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Army, along with his 1993–2011 run as a U.S. representative from Indiana.
According to the White House, the pardon had the “complete and total endorsement” of more than 50 current and former lawmakers. Those backing the move included Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Roger Wicker, former House Speaker John Boehner, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Rep. Louie Gohmert, former Rep. Dan Burton, former Rep. Lamar Smith and former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill Jr.
The proclamation also directed Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to “administer and effectuate the immediate issuance of a certificate of pardon” for Buyer.
Buyer’s conviction came from claims that he bought stock in a management company called Navigant just weeks before one of his own clients, Guidehouse, acquired it. He was also accused of buying Sprint shares after learning about the company’s unannounced plans to merge with T-Mobile.
During the case, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said the former congressman had obstructed justice by giving the court false explanations for the trades. Buyer’s legal team argued for home confinement and community service instead of prison, saying the fight over the case had crushed his finances.
His lawyers said Buyer and his wife were forced to sell their home, condo and two cars, and that his wife had to go back to work at 65 years old. They also said Buyer, who once made as much as $2.2 million in a single year, had been financially ruined by the litigation.
Even so, Berman ordered Buyer to serve prison time, forfeit the $354,027 he made from the illegal trades and pay an additional $10,000 fine. Prosecutors had also pushed for him to pay $1.4 million in legal fees, but the judge rejected that request.