President Donald Trump pardoned a MAGA sheriff from Virginia who was convicted of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes.
Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Monday that he was issuing a “full and unconditional” pardon for Scott Jenkins, who was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison earlier this year following his December 2024 conviction of conspiracy, honest services fraud, and bribery.
The president claimed that Jenkins and his family had been “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.”
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“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail,” he wrote. “He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’”
Trump said Jenkins will not be going to jail, “but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”
Jenkins was the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia—located around 100 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.—for more than a decade until he lost his re-election bid in 2023 following his indictment on bribery and fraud charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said Jenkins accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for appointing Northern Virginia businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs so that they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit.
Under the scheme, Jenkins accepted cash bribes in the form of campaign contributions, then appointed the payers as auxiliary deputy sheriffs with their own Sheriff’s Office badges and credentials, despite not undergoing any training or vetting.
“We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable,” acting U.S. Attorney Zachary Lee said in March.
In 2021, Jenkins was one of eight sheriffs named as fellows by the Claremont Institute, a far-right think tank that employs a number of former Trump administration officials.
He’d also previously come to national attention by vowing to deputize “thousands” of residents in his county if the Virginia state legislature passed what he deemed to be “unnecessary gun restrictions.”
