Trump Grants Pardon to Nikola Founder Trevor Milton

President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Nikola Corp founder Trevor Milton, following his conviction in October 2022 for federal offenses related to deceiving investors with fraudulent claims regarding the success of the electric and hydrogen-powered truck manufacturer.

Milton, aged 42, received a four-year prison sentence in December 2023 but has been free since as he appeals his criminal convictions for securities and wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The pardon was issued two weeks after federal attorneys requested District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos to order Milton to pay $680 million in restitution to Nikola shareholders, in addition to $15.2 million to Peter Hicks, a victim of his wire fraud.

Due to the pardon, Ramos was unable to mandate any form of restitution.

“Oh my gosh, you won’t believe what just happened,” Milton exclaimed in an Instagram video shared on Thursday. “This is probably the best day I’ve had in five years.”

“I just received a call from the President of the United States, and he has signed my full and unconditional pardon of innocence,” Milton said, appearing to be driving in the video.

“I am free now. The prosecutors can no longer harm me,” he proclaimed. “They can’t destroy my family, they can’t take everything away from me, they can’t ruin my life.”

The White House has confirmed the pardon. Milton’s defense attorneys did not immediately reply to requests for comment on his assertion of being pardoned by Trump.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Milton, declined to comment on the pardon situation.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office stated, upon securing an indictment against Milton in 2021, that numerous investors deceived by his scheme “suffered tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, including, in some cases, the loss of their retirement savings or funds they had borrowed to invest in Nikola.”

Milton also made considerable political donations to Republicans in late 2024, including $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee, a detail first reported by New York Times journalist Ken Bensinger. Milton, who had “never previously made political donations,” allocated $2 million to Republicans between September and December.

In a press release issued Thursday, Milton stated, “This pardon is not just about me — it’s about every American who has been wronged by the government, and unfortunately, that’s a large number of people.”

Milton further claimed there are “striking similarities” between his case and those against President Trump.

The President faced charges in four criminal cases while serving in both terms at the White House.

Following Trump’s election in November, the U.S. Justice Department sought to dismiss two federal cases, referencing a department policy against the prosecution of sitting presidents.

No filings in Manhattan federal court or the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals have indicated that the criminal case against Milton has been abandoned due to the pardon.

However, it is not unusual for notices of presidential pardons to be submitted to the court several days after the pardons have been granted.

“It’s no surprise that trust and confidence in the Justice Department has diminished to nothing,” Milton expressed in the press release.

“I wish judges would stop accepting whatever the prosecutors provide them so Americans could have faith in the justice system again,” he said. “Until that changes, our justice system will continue to decline until it’s essentially nonexistent.”

Trump’s pardon of Milton, if verified, would nullify his criminal conviction and sentence, which included a $1 million fine.

Earlier this month, Trump granted a pardon to former Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey, who had just begun a 21-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to a federal campaign finance conspiracy.

In that case, it took a week after Kelsey’s release from prison for the notice of the pardon to be filed in federal court.

This week, Trump also signed a full and unconditional pardon for Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.

Like Milton, Archer had also been convicted in a fraud-related case.

Right after his inauguration on January 20, Trump notably pardoned around 1,500 individuals charged or convicted of crimes linked to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

On his second day in office, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for crimes associated with his dark web marketplace, Silk Road.

In February, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich received a presidential pardon after serving eight years in prison for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when the then-senator was elected President in 2008.

In February, Nikola sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The company indicated in a filing that it had assets between $500 million and $1 billion, and liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion. It also requested court approval for the sale of the business, stating it had approximately $47 million in cash available.

Nikola, which primarily manufactures all-electric and fuel cell electric semi-trucks, has faced numerous challenges in recent years, selling only 600 vehicles since 2022, as noted in its latest third-quarter report.

As the company’s financial situation has worsened, many of its trucks have been recalled due to defects. In its third-quarter earnings call, Nikola warned that it had sufficient cash to sustain operations only until the first quarter of 2025.

Nikola’s collapse comes just five years after it achieved a market capitalization of $30 billion in 2020, surpassing that of Ford at that time.

This valuation was driven by misleading statements made by Milton, who was indicted in July 2021.

Prosecutors claimed that from November 2019 to September 2020, Milton misled non-professional investors into investing in Nikola “through false and misleading statements about Nikola’s product development via social media, television, print, and podcast interviews.”

“Milton made false claims regarding almost every aspect of Nikola’s business,” the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office stated when he was indicted.

These included incorrect assertions “that the company had achieved early success in creating a ‘fully functioning’ semi-truck prototype known as the ‘Nikola One,’ even though Milton was aware the prototype was non-operational.”

The office further noted that Milton falsely claimed “that Nikola had engineered and built an electric and hydrogen-powered pickup truck named ‘the Badger’ from ‘the ground up’ using Nikola’s components and technology, which he knew was not accurate.”

Last autumn, a judge upheld a nearly $168 million arbitration award against Milton for his deceptive statements regarding Nikola.

— CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this story.