A look inside the pardon process during President Trump’s term
Breaking with tradition, President Donald Trump granted pardons with unique terms.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced on November 7 that he has pardoned former baseball player Darryl Strawberry, who was convicted of past tax evasion, citing his sobriety and restored Christian faith.
Strawberry, an eight-time All-Star outfielder in Major League Baseball, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1995, admitting that he intentionally failed to report more than $350,000 in income he earned from autograph sessions.
Strawberry was suspended three times for drug abuse during his MLB career and later served 11 months in a Florida prison on unrelated state charges for drug possession and pimping. He was released in 2003.
A White House official who confirmed President Trump’s approval of the pardon said Strawberry, now 63, had served his time in prison and repaid the taxes he owed to the government. Strawberry has since discovered his Christian faith and has remained sober for more than 10 years, the source said. Mr. Strawberry became active in volunteer work and started a drug recovery center, which remains active today, officials said.
Strawberry, an outspoken supporter of President Trump during his campaign, expressed his gratitude for the president’s pardon in an Instagram post. “Thank you President Trump for my full pardon and for ending this part of my life so I can be truly free and clean from all of my past,” Strawberry wrote.
Strawberry said he received a call at 4:37 p.m. ET on Nov. 6 and noticed the Washington, D.C., area code, adding that “to his surprise” the call was for Trump. He said the president spoke warmly about the peak of Strawberry’s playing career in the 1980s and said, “Then he told me he was going to give me a full pardon from my past.”
“This has nothing to do with politics. It’s about President Trump, a man who cares deeply about his friends. God used him as a vessel to set me free forever!” Ichigo said.
Strawberry, the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year, is best known for his time with the New York Mets in the 1980s before finishing his career with the New York Yankees. Strawberry also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. He played on three World Series champion teams, one on both sides of New York.
Trump has aggressively used his pardon power in recent weeks.
In October, he commuted the seven-year prison sentence of former New York Republican Congressman George Santos for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He later pardoned Binance founder Chao Changpeng, a major backer of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. On November 6, President Trump pardoned former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his aide Cade Cothren, and announced that both men will serve time in prison on public corruption charges.
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
