President Donald Trump has pardoned former U.S. Representative Stephen Buyer, an Indiana Republican, who was convicted of securities fraud ​for engaging in insider trading in 2018 as a T-Mobile US ‌consultant ahead of a $23 billion merger with Sprint.
The proclamation, issued on Thursday and announced by the White House on Friday, gave no specific rationale for the pardon other ​than to assert that Buyer's service as a U.S. Army judge ​advocate general and member of Congress "was distinguished and highly productive."
It ⁠also said that Trump, in granting Buyer a "full, complete and unconditional pardon," was acting ​on the "advice and recommendation" of 52 current and former members of the U.S. ​Senate and House of Representatives listed in the proclamation.
Buyer served in the House as a Republican from Indiana between 1993 and 2011 before working as a corporate consultant. He ​was found guilty in March of 2023 on four counts of securities ​fraud, and was sentenced in September of that year to 22 months in prison.
Prosecutors said ‌at ⁠trial that Buyer bought Sprint stock after learning from a T-Mobile executive that the telecommunications companies were in merger talks in 2018 and made illegal trades again the following year.
According to prosecutors, Buyer made more than $100,000 from the ​Sprint trades and ​more than $200,000 from ⁠buying stock in Navigant Consulting Inc. before it was acquired by Guidehouse in 2019.
Buyer, who had served as one ​of the House managers in the 1999 impeachment trial ​of then-President ⁠Bill Clinton, took the stand at his own trial and denied trading on inside information.
Prosecutors sought three years in prison for Buyer in court filings, saying ⁠that he ​had abused his clients' trust and lied ​on the stand.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused in May of this year to hear Buyer's appeal ​of his conviction.

-Reuters