Trump Grants Full Pardon for Former Virginia Sheriff

Scott Jenkins, a former sheriff in Culpeper County, Virginia, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of federal bribery.

President Donald Trump said Monday that he had forgiven Scott Jenkins, a former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a federal bribery conviction.

Trump made an announcement on his true social platform, calling Jenkins a victim of the “eager Biden Department of Justice” “not worth a day in prison.”

The federal ju umpire in December 2024 found Jenkins guilty of all 12 count conspiracy, fraud and bribery related to the 2023 reelection campaign. Prosecutors said they accepted at least $72,000 in cash bribe in exchange for badges through the county auxiliary sheriff’s deputy program.

Several individuals, including three co-defendants and two undercover agents, have been promised official Culpeper County Sheriff’s office badges and identification despite not training, reviewing or carrying out law enforcement duties, according to court documents.

Jenkins maintained his innocence, and his three co-defendants pleaded guilty. His defense argued that the payment was a legal campaign contribution and was within his authority as a sheriff to designate an assistant deputy sheriff.

In March, Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison and appealed.

Trump came to Jenkins’ defense on Monday to denounce the judge who took the lead in politically motivated cases and excluded the evidence he was exempt from in favor of the sheriff during the trial.

The judge reportedly allows him to prove how he feels, not what is mandated under the constitution or rules of evidence, the president wrote.

Jenkins led Culpeper County law enforcement more than a decade before the prosecutor, who ultimately sacrificed his re-election in 2023. First elected in 2011, he served one Republican, three terms in most counties of around 52,000 residents.

Over the years, Jenkins has emerged as a consistently conservative local leader on issues such as rights to amendments, immigration enforcement, and public health obligations. His profile grew as political tensions escalated between conservative rural communities in Virginia and progressive lawmakers on the left in Richmond.

In December 2019, Jenkins joined more than 30 other Virginia sheriffs, declared the county a “second amendment sanctuary” and vowed to represent residents if the state legislature passed a new gun control law that stated it would violate its second amendment right.

“We sheriffs, especially the sheriffs in the majority of rural environments in America, know what they need to protect our citizens and how short we are to staff them for that. “It’s up to the sheriff to stand firm and push back and say, ‘We won’t allow it.’ ”

A few months ago, Jenkins won a class action lawsuit brought about by illegal immigration, held at the request of a federal immigration official. At the time, Jenkins’ office was one of the few offices in Virginia that operated under a cooperative agreement that allowed local police to help enforce federal immigration.

In 2020, Jenkins made headlines again by refusing to implement the Covid-19 lockdown order issued by the then GOV. Ralph Northam.

“The governor has the right to enact regulations during an emergency, so I get it, but that’s why the constitution won’t go away,” Jenkins said during the Epoch era at the time. “We will not be used to enforce declarations or regulations by the governor, health director or others.”

Jenkins issued a personal plea for generosity last month in a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriff and the Peace Officers Association, NBC4 Washington reported that he lacked funds to pursue an appeal and believes Trump would step in if he knew the full story and evidence he couldn’t present in court.

Since he returned to the White House, Trump has forgiven many people who said he was targeted by the Justice Department, which was politicized during the Biden administration.

Jenkins is “a wonderful man persecuted by the radical left,” the president wrote Monday. “He won’t be jailed tomorrow, but he’ll have a great, productive life instead.”