President Trump on Monday pardoned a Virginia sheriff who has been convicted of soliciting bribes in exchange for sheriff’s badges, casting the verdict as the byproduct of a “overzealous Biden Department of Justice.”
Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of accepting over $75,000 in bribes “in exchange for appointing numerous Northern Virginia businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department.”
He had been scheduled to report to prison Tuesday.
“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”
Mr. Trump made an implicit comparison to his own federal prosecution and those against the Jan. 6 rioters, which he called unfair and politicized.
“During his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade,” he said. “As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence.”
“This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon,” he said. “He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”
According to the Justice Department, a jury convicted Mr. Jenkins in 2024 of “one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.”
He was sentenced in March to 10 years in federal prison.
“Scott Jenkins violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme,” Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said in a March press release.
“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,” he said.
