By American Renaissance | Created at 2025-03-21 19:45:10 | Updated at 2025-04-04 13:15:51
1 week ago
Prominent supporters of President Trump — led by podcaster Ben Shapiro — are fueling a major push to pardon Derek Chauvin, the white former Minnesota police officer convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020.
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The big picture: A Trump pardon would only affect Chauvin’s federal case — where he pleaded guilty — and not the state case.
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Zoom in: Shapiro, whose podcast episodes often break the Top 10 on Apple’s charts, launched the campaign early this month with a petition to convince Trump to issue the pardon. Shapiro has long dismissed the existence of systemic racism.
- Earlier this month, Trump said he hadn’t heard of the push to pardon Chauvin. Shapiro’s petition has now surpassed 50,000 signatures.
- Shapiro is launching a five-part docuseries titled “The Case for Derek Chauvin” that will start airing on his show Tuesday.
- Shapiro claims that Chauvin was unjustly convicted and that Floyd’s death was caused by underlying health issues and drug use.
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The intrigue: Some of MAGA’s most influential figures are paying attention to Shapiro’s petition.
- Elon Musk posted that the idea was “something to think about.” Charlie Kirk hosted Shapiro on his podcast in a show of support for the effort.
- Shapiro tells Axios: “[I]f you actually do want to get a pardon for somebody, then typically you have to build a groundswell of support for that to become a political reality.”
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