MAGA leaders want Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Could that really happen?

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MAGA leaders want Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin for the ******* of George Floyd. Could that really happen?

On Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — the Democratic Party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee — addressed a conservative cause celebre that’s been percolating online for months: the push to get President Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd almost exactly five years ago.

There’s “no indication whether [Trump is] going to do it or not, but I think it behooves us to be prepared for it, “ Walz

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. “With this presidency, it seems like that might be something they would do.”

Why do MAGA leaders want the president to pardon Chauvin? Is there any reason to think Trump will actually go through with it? And what would happen if he did? Here’s everything you need to know about the debate over Chauvin’s future.

Why is Chauvin in prison?

Chauvin is serving two concurrent sentences. First, in April 2021, a Minnesota state jury found Chauvin guilty of all three counts brought against him after he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes: second-degree *******, third-degree ******* and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was among the police officers who responded to a call the previous spring accusing Floyd, 46, of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a Minneapolis corner store. After Floyd was handcuffed, Chauvin restrained him face down on the street as Floyd repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe.”

A Hennepin County medical examiner ruled Floyd’s death a ********* due to “cardiopulmonary arrest” that occurred during “law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”

Two months later, in June 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty — in federal court — to depriving Floyd of his civil rights (and doing the same to a 14-year-old in a separate 2017 case where he also used “excessive force”).

“I really don’t know why you did what you did,” a federal judge told Chauvin in 2022. “To put your knee on a person’s neck until they expired is simply wrong.”

Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and half years in prison for his state conviction and 21 years for his federal conviction. He is currently incarcerated at a federal facility in Texas. He is expected to be released in November 2037.

In November 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s effort to appeal his state conviction.

Where is this pardon push coming from?

In May 2023, a page from Floyd’s autopsy report started circulating on social media. Users claimed that it was “new” and that it revealed the true cause of Floyd’s death: drugs.

“BREAKING NEWS: George Floyd full autopsy released,” read one post. “Says ‘no life threatening injuries identified’ and reveals high levels of multiple additional toxic drugs on top of the Fentanyl that was initially reported.”

Another post claimed that “the coroner’s report says Floyd died from drugs — not COPS.”

But according to a thorough

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, these posts were false. “The image being shared online simply shows the second page of the autopsy report released three years ago by Hennepin County,” the AP reported. “It does not prove anything new about Floyd’s death, and ignores that the prior page concludes that it was a ********* due to ‘cardiopulmonary arrest’ from ‘law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.’”

Independent experts

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that Floyd’s underlying medical problems and drug use simply made it “more likely that he would not fare well under [the] stress” of being knelt on for more than nine minutes — and that the lack of “life-threatening injuries” in his neck “does not mean that asphyxia did not occur,” but rather that it didn’t leave behind “major bruising or damage to the muscles, cartilage or bones.”

A second autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family around the same time identified “

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” as the cause of death.

Regardless, conservative media figures such as Tucker Carlson seized on the idea that Floyd was to blame for his own death — and that Chauvin was therefore innocent. “Derek Chauvin is serving 21 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit,” Carlson

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. “If they’d do this to him, they’d do it to you.”

“George Floyd died from a drug overdose,”

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. “Derek Chauvin should be released from prison and his record should be scrubbed.”

In March of this year, two months after Trump returned to the Oval Office, conservative pundit Ben Shapiro

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— and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who serves as the de facto head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, said it was “

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.”

On his podcast, Shapiro argued Chauvin did not receive a fair trial because the ****** Lives Matter movement put “massive pressure on the jury” — and that Chauvin was “not guilty beyond reasonable doubt” because Floyd was “high on fentanyl and had a significant preexisting heart condition.”

Shapiro then speculated that Floyd died of “excited delirium” — a

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,” according to Scientific American.

Is Trump considering a pardon?

In March, White House reporters asked Trump about pardoning Chauvin. “No, I haven’t even heard about it,” he said.

Since then, there has been no indication that the president is planning to move on the issue. As the five-year anniversary of Floyd’s killing approaches — a milestone that could, in theory, trigger a pardon — both the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota Department of Corrections

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that they’ve heard nothing to suggest an imminent change in Chauvin’s status (even as Minneapolis officials quietly prepare, just in case).

When Walz said earlier this week that a pardon “seems like … something they would do,” he was likely referring to the fact that Trump has not been shy about using his presidential powers to issue controversial pardons (including 1,500 of them for supporters of his who were charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol) or stir the pot on civil rights (by prioritizing white Afrikaners as refugees or

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that gained momentum in the wake of Floyd’s killing).

Can Trump actually pardon Chauvin? And what would happen if he did?

Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Trump has the power to unilaterally pardon Chauvin’s federal conviction — but he can’t do anything about Chauvin’s state conviction.

As Walz pointed out Wednesday, this means that if Trump does erase Chauvin’s federal sentence, Minnesota authorities “will simply transfer Derek Chauvin to serve out his [state sentence of] 22-and-a-half years in prison in Minnesota.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office led the state prosecution of Chauvin, echoed Walz in a statement.

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#MAGA #leaders #Trump #pardon #Derek #Chauvin #******* #George #Floyd #happen

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