President-elect Donald Trump's pardons could include a number of Long Islanders
President-elect Donald Trump. During his first presidency, Trump exercised his pardon power at a historically low level, according to findings published in 2021 by the Pew Research Center. Credit: Getty Images/Pool
A former Long Island congressman, a number of Jan. 6 rioters and a former Nassau County executive.
They are among notable Long Islanders convicted of federal crimes who could see good legal fortune come January.
President-elect Donald Trump could potentially pardon them when he takes over the Oval Office for a second term next year.
Trump has long railed against the criminal charges pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice against the mob that swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt, according to federal prosecutors, to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Jan. 6 was a "day of love," Trump has said. He called those at the Capitol that day "unbelievable patriots" and said those who were prosecuted were akin to political prisoners and hostages, NBC News reported.
When asked if he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants when he was interviewed by a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists earlier this year, Trump said, according to NBC: "Oh, absolutely, I would. If they're innocent, I would pardon them. They were convicted by a very tough system."
The Justice Department has charged 1,561 people with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack as of early November, according to the department. About 1,028 of those defendants have been sentenced and 645 have received prison sentences, the department said.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden despite past promises pardoned his son Hunter who was to be sentenced this month for gun and tax convictions, according to The Associated Press.
Several Long Islanders were prosecuted for participating in the attack on the Capitol.
One of them is Peter Moloney, a former co-owner of the Suffolk County-based Moloney Family Funeral Homes. He pleaded guilty to assault charges for physically attacking police officers and two people he believed were members of the media. Prosecutors alleged Moloney sprayed four Capitol police officers with a can of Black Flag Wasp, Hornet & Yellow Jacket Killer.
Moloney is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11.
When asked if he planned to seek a pardon for his client, Moloney’s attorney, Philip Branigan, said, "We have no comment on this issue as it pertains to Mr. Moloney at this time."
In 2022, Greg Rubenacker, 26, of Farmingdale, was sentenced to nearly 3½ years in prison and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for assaulting federal officers and committing other crimes during the Jan. 6 attack, Newsday has reported.
New Hyde Park resident Eric Gerwatowski was sentenced last year to 2 years of probation, 30 days of home detention and ordered to pay $2,000 to the Architect of the Capitol for damages incurred after he pleaded guilty to his role, prosecutors said. Prosecutors alleged he pulled open a door to the Capitol and yelled to other rioters: "Let's go!"
And a former Farmingdale man who now lives in North Carolina, Anthony Mastanduno, who was known on social media as "Shield Grampy," was sentenced in June to 57 months in prison for throwing a "flagpole-like object ... as if throwing a javelin or spear" at officers and pushing officers with a police shield and trying to strike them with a baton, prosecutors said.
Mastanduno pleaded guilty to six felony charges.
Another Long Islander, Lindenhurst resident Matthew Schmitz, a member of the Long Island chapter of the white supremacist group known as the Proud Boys, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in September, admitting he "overwhelmed a police line" and broke a window before he entered the Capitol and disrupted the proceeding of Congress certifying the election results, Newsday previously reported.
He is scheduled to be sentenced just four days before Trump takes office. His attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment on whether he would seek clemency from Trump.
The process of clemency consideration from a sitting president traditionally begins with the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department. The pardon attorney reviews all applications for clemency and prepares a report with recommendations for the president.
During his first term as president, Trump largely bypassed that process, which is not required, according to news reports.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, recently weighed in on potential pardons for Jan. 6 defendants when delaying the trial of upstate resident Edward Jacob Lang, who is charged with attacking police at the Capitol, according to a recent article in USA Today.
"Blanket pardons for all Jan. 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call," Nichols said, according to the publication. "And the possibility of some pardons, at least, is a very real thing."
Eric M. Freedman, a distinguished professor of constitutional law at Hofstra Law School, said the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision granting immunity to presidents has removed any legal guardrails from the presidential pardon process.
"That disgraceful ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court takes a wrecking ball to the checks and balances in the system," Freedman said.
The presidential pardon process was kept honest by the possibility of presidents being charged after leaving office if they were to grant a pardon in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy, Freedman said. With that possibility removed by the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, Freedman said, the only deterrent to misusing the pardon power is political backlash.
Disgraced ex-Long Island Congressman George Santos pleaded guilty to federal crimes after admitting to a series of schemes as he ran for elected office, including submitting fraudulent campaign finance reports and stealing from his donors’ credit cards. Santos was unmasked as a serial liar and fabulist after he was elected in 2022 when The New York Times reported he had lied about various jobs and academic credentials.
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February, though his attorneys have raised the possibility of the sentencing date being postponed if Santos were unable to pay the required $205,000 to the government.
Santos faces a minimum of 2 years in federal prison under the identity theft charge; wire fraud includes a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison with no minimum sentence.
Santos reacted excitedly in a flurry of messages on the social media platform "X" when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was named as Trump's pick for attorney general. As attorney general, Gaetz could have been instrumental in getting Trump to pardon Santos.
"America is so back with AG Gaetz!" Santos posted. Gaetz voted against expelling Santos from Congress, though a majority of lawmakers voted in favor and Santos was removed from the seat representing parts of Nassau County and Queens.
But Gaetz, who was the subject of both a criminal investigation and House ethics probe into allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old, withdrew from consideration days after his nomination was announced. Gaetz has denied the allegations and the Justice Department investigation ended without charges for him.
Santos' legal team did not respond to a message for comment on whether Santos is seeking a pardon from Trump.
Others who could seek a pardon from the incoming president include former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
Mangano was convicted of taking bribes, including a $450,000 no-show job for his wife, Linda Mangano, from his friend and politically connected restaurateur Harendra Singh in exchange for influencing Oyster Bay Town officials to indirectly guarantee $20 million in loans for Singh's management of several town-owned concessions.
Mangano, a Republican, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and is serving his sentence in an upstate prison. His supporters have questioned whether his prosecution was political, though there has been no evidence that it was.
Mangano is appealing his sentence. His appeals attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Kevin J. Keating, Mangano's trial attorney, declined to comment for this article.
Garden City-based attorney John F. Carman, who represented Linda Mangano at trial and who is representing Trump's 2016 campaign CEO and White House strategist Steve Bannon on charges he swindled people who donated money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, deferred comment on Edward Mangano to his lawyers, but said he believed Trump would review prosecutions that appeared politically motivated.
“There is a strong perception that DOJ’s power to prosecute was brought to bear in a political fashion during the Biden administration," Carman said. "For this reason, the Trump Pardon Office will review any conviction that has even the faintest scent of politics. Much like Trump, General [Michael] Flynn and Bannon, Linda Mangano’s prosecution would be difficult to envision in a criminal justice system not contaminated by politics.”
During his time as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021, Trump exercised his pardon power at a historically low level, according to findings published in 2021 by the Pew Research Center, which analyzed justice department statistics.
Trump granted clemency to 237 defendants — 143 pardons and 94 commutations — or 2% of the 11,611 petitioners. Trump gave clemency to fewer people than every president since 1900 except George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, the Pew analysis showed.
On the second-to-last day of his presidency, Trump commuted the 10-year-sentence of Atlantic Beach man Jonathan Braun, 41, who had pleaded guilty in connection with allegations of money laundering and conspiracy to import marijuana.
In August, Nassau prosecutors charged Braun with second-degree assault on an elderly person and third-degree assault for allegedly punching his father-in-law, who is 75, in the face two times.
Trump commuted Braun's sentence after his family contacted the father of Jared Kushner, the then-White House adviser and son-in-law to Trump, the Times reported. The commutation "instantly destroyed the government's leverage" on Braun, who had been negotiating a deal with federal prosecutors that would have seen Braun released early from prison if he agreed to flip on predatory lenders, the Times reported.
Asked about Braun's pardon recently as he campaigned for reelection, Trump -- who according to the Times "repeatedly circumvented the Office of the Pardon Attorney and relied on recommendations for clemency from friends, allies and family members" -- said he had vetted applications through a commission.
"It was a very important commission to me and highly respected people, and frankly, they came up with some decisions that I wouldn't necessarily agree with, but I did it," Trump said at an August news conference, the Times reported.
A former Long Island congressman, a number of Jan. 6 rioters and a former Nassau County executive.
They are among notable Long Islanders convicted of federal crimes who could see good legal fortune come January.
President-elect Donald Trump could potentially pardon them when he takes over the Oval Office for a second term next year.
Trump has long railed against the criminal charges pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice against the mob that swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt, according to federal prosecutors, to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- A number of Long Islanders convicted of federal crimes could potentially request and receive pardons from incoming President Donald Trump after he takes over the White House in January.
- Trump has long railed against the criminal charges pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice against the mob that swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Several Long Islanders were prosecuted for participating in the attack on the Capitol, including Peter Moloney, a former co-owner of the Suffolk County-based Moloney Family Funeral Homes.
Jan. 6 was a "day of love," Trump has said. He called those at the Capitol that day "unbelievable patriots" and said those who were prosecuted were akin to political prisoners and hostages, NBC News reported.
When asked if he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants when he was interviewed by a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists earlier this year, Trump said, according to NBC: "Oh, absolutely, I would. If they're innocent, I would pardon them. They were convicted by a very tough system."
The Justice Department has charged 1,561 people with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack as of early November, according to the department. About 1,028 of those defendants have been sentenced and 645 have received prison sentences, the department said.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden despite past promises pardoned his son Hunter who was to be sentenced this month for gun and tax convictions, according to The Associated Press.
Long Island's Capitol convictions
Several Long Islanders were prosecuted for participating in the attack on the Capitol.
One of them is Peter Moloney, a former co-owner of the Suffolk County-based Moloney Family Funeral Homes. He pleaded guilty to assault charges for physically attacking police officers and two people he believed were members of the media. Prosecutors alleged Moloney sprayed four Capitol police officers with a can of Black Flag Wasp, Hornet & Yellow Jacket Killer.
Peter G. Moloney leaves federal court in Central Islip in June, 2023. Credit: James Carbone
Moloney is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11.
When asked if he planned to seek a pardon for his client, Moloney’s attorney, Philip Branigan, said, "We have no comment on this issue as it pertains to Mr. Moloney at this time."
In 2022, Greg Rubenacker, 26, of Farmingdale, was sentenced to nearly 3½ years in prison and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for assaulting federal officers and committing other crimes during the Jan. 6 attack, Newsday has reported.
New Hyde Park resident Eric Gerwatowski was sentenced last year to 2 years of probation, 30 days of home detention and ordered to pay $2,000 to the Architect of the Capitol for damages incurred after he pleaded guilty to his role, prosecutors said. Prosecutors alleged he pulled open a door to the Capitol and yelled to other rioters: "Let's go!"
And a former Farmingdale man who now lives in North Carolina, Anthony Mastanduno, who was known on social media as "Shield Grampy," was sentenced in June to 57 months in prison for throwing a "flagpole-like object ... as if throwing a javelin or spear" at officers and pushing officers with a police shield and trying to strike them with a baton, prosecutors said.
Mastanduno pleaded guilty to six felony charges.
Another Long Islander, Lindenhurst resident Matthew Schmitz, a member of the Long Island chapter of the white supremacist group known as the Proud Boys, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in September, admitting he "overwhelmed a police line" and broke a window before he entered the Capitol and disrupted the proceeding of Congress certifying the election results, Newsday previously reported.
He is scheduled to be sentenced just four days before Trump takes office. His attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment on whether he would seek clemency from Trump.
When presidents issue pardons
The process of clemency consideration from a sitting president traditionally begins with the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department. The pardon attorney reviews all applications for clemency and prepares a report with recommendations for the president.
During his first term as president, Trump largely bypassed that process, which is not required, according to news reports.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, recently weighed in on potential pardons for Jan. 6 defendants when delaying the trial of upstate resident Edward Jacob Lang, who is charged with attacking police at the Capitol, according to a recent article in USA Today.
"Blanket pardons for all Jan. 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call," Nichols said, according to the publication. "And the possibility of some pardons, at least, is a very real thing."
Eric M. Freedman, a distinguished professor of constitutional law at Hofstra Law School, said the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision granting immunity to presidents has removed any legal guardrails from the presidential pardon process.
"That disgraceful ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court takes a wrecking ball to the checks and balances in the system," Freedman said.
The presidential pardon process was kept honest by the possibility of presidents being charged after leaving office if they were to grant a pardon in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy, Freedman said. With that possibility removed by the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, Freedman said, the only deterrent to misusing the pardon power is political backlash.
Will George Santos, Edward Mangano seek pardons?
Disgraced ex-Long Island Congressman George Santos pleaded guilty to federal crimes after admitting to a series of schemes as he ran for elected office, including submitting fraudulent campaign finance reports and stealing from his donors’ credit cards. Santos was unmasked as a serial liar and fabulist after he was elected in 2022 when The New York Times reported he had lied about various jobs and academic credentials.
George Santos arrives at the Federal Court in Central Islip on Aug. 19. Credit: Jeff Bachner
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February, though his attorneys have raised the possibility of the sentencing date being postponed if Santos were unable to pay the required $205,000 to the government.
Santos faces a minimum of 2 years in federal prison under the identity theft charge; wire fraud includes a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison with no minimum sentence.
Santos reacted excitedly in a flurry of messages on the social media platform "X" when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was named as Trump's pick for attorney general. As attorney general, Gaetz could have been instrumental in getting Trump to pardon Santos.
"America is so back with AG Gaetz!" Santos posted. Gaetz voted against expelling Santos from Congress, though a majority of lawmakers voted in favor and Santos was removed from the seat representing parts of Nassau County and Queens.
But Gaetz, who was the subject of both a criminal investigation and House ethics probe into allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old, withdrew from consideration days after his nomination was announced. Gaetz has denied the allegations and the Justice Department investigation ended without charges for him.
Santos' legal team did not respond to a message for comment on whether Santos is seeking a pardon from Trump.
Others who could seek a pardon from the incoming president include former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
Mangano was convicted of taking bribes, including a $450,000 no-show job for his wife, Linda Mangano, from his friend and politically connected restaurateur Harendra Singh in exchange for influencing Oyster Bay Town officials to indirectly guarantee $20 million in loans for Singh's management of several town-owned concessions.
Mangano, a Republican, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and is serving his sentence in an upstate prison. His supporters have questioned whether his prosecution was political, though there has been no evidence that it was.
Mangano is appealing his sentence. His appeals attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Kevin J. Keating, Mangano's trial attorney, declined to comment for this article.
Former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano leaves federal court in Central Islip after being sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption on April 14, 2022. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
Garden City-based attorney John F. Carman, who represented Linda Mangano at trial and who is representing Trump's 2016 campaign CEO and White House strategist Steve Bannon on charges he swindled people who donated money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, deferred comment on Edward Mangano to his lawyers, but said he believed Trump would review prosecutions that appeared politically motivated.
“There is a strong perception that DOJ’s power to prosecute was brought to bear in a political fashion during the Biden administration," Carman said. "For this reason, the Trump Pardon Office will review any conviction that has even the faintest scent of politics. Much like Trump, General [Michael] Flynn and Bannon, Linda Mangano’s prosecution would be difficult to envision in a criminal justice system not contaminated by politics.”
Trump's earlier presidential pardons
During his time as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021, Trump exercised his pardon power at a historically low level, according to findings published in 2021 by the Pew Research Center, which analyzed justice department statistics.
Trump granted clemency to 237 defendants — 143 pardons and 94 commutations — or 2% of the 11,611 petitioners. Trump gave clemency to fewer people than every president since 1900 except George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, the Pew analysis showed.
On the second-to-last day of his presidency, Trump commuted the 10-year-sentence of Atlantic Beach man Jonathan Braun, 41, who had pleaded guilty in connection with allegations of money laundering and conspiracy to import marijuana.
In August, Nassau prosecutors charged Braun with second-degree assault on an elderly person and third-degree assault for allegedly punching his father-in-law, who is 75, in the face two times.
Trump commuted Braun's sentence after his family contacted the father of Jared Kushner, the then-White House adviser and son-in-law to Trump, the Times reported. The commutation "instantly destroyed the government's leverage" on Braun, who had been negotiating a deal with federal prosecutors that would have seen Braun released early from prison if he agreed to flip on predatory lenders, the Times reported.
Asked about Braun's pardon recently as he campaigned for reelection, Trump -- who according to the Times "repeatedly circumvented the Office of the Pardon Attorney and relied on recommendations for clemency from friends, allies and family members" -- said he had vetted applications through a commission.
"It was a very important commission to me and highly respected people, and frankly, they came up with some decisions that I wouldn't necessarily agree with, but I did it," Trump said at an August news conference, the Times reported.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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