President Donald Trump has granted a full and unconditional pardon to former Rep. Stephen Buyer, an Indiana Republican who spent nearly two years in prison after being convicted of insider trading. The pardon was signed Thursday and quietly disclosed by the White House over the weekend.
Buyer, who represented Indiana in Congress from 1993 to 2011, was convicted in 2023 on four counts of securities fraud stemming from trades linked to nonpublic information he obtained while working as a consultant after leaving office. Prosecutors said Buyer profited from stock purchases related to the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile and a separate acquisition involving Navigant Consulting.
White House cites military and congressional service
In the official pardon proclamation, Trump praised Buyer’s military and congressional career as “distinguished and highly productive,” arguing that his record of public service warranted clemency.
The White House said the decision came after appeals from dozens of current and former lawmakers. According to the proclamation, more than 50 members of Congress supported the pardon, including high-profile Republicans such as Sens. Roger Wicker and Lindsey Graham and former House Speaker John Boehner.
Conviction survived appeals
Federal prosecutors argued that after leaving Congress and working as a corporate consultant and lobbyist, Buyer used confidential, nonpublic information obtained through his clients to execute illegal stock trades.
Prosecutors showed that Buyer purchased Sprint shares in 2018 after learning from a T-Mobile executive about a planned $26.5 billion merger between the two telecommunications companies before the deal was publicly announced. They also alleged that he bought stock in Navigant Consulting in 2019 after learning through his consulting work that Guidehouse intended to acquire the company.
A federal jury ultimately convicted Buyer, concluding that the trades generated more than $350,000 in illicit profits. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison, ordered to forfeit $354,027 in gains, and fined $10,000.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Buyer’s appeal in May, leaving his conviction intact before Trump’s pardon was issued. The justices did not weigh in on Buyer’s guilt or innocence, instead declining review because his petition centered on case-specific factual disputes and objections to trial venue rather than a broader constitutional question.
Buyer maintains innocence
Buyer has consistently denied wrongdoing and testified in his own defense during the trial. Following the pardon, he said the prosecution was politically motivated and that he had been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
The former congressman was also known nationally for serving as one of the House managers during President Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial and later serving on Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team focused on veterans affairs.
The pardon does not erase Buyer’s conviction but restores his civil rights and relieves him of the remaining legal consequences associated with the case.
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