Trump fraudster learns the hard way that a pardon only goes so far
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/8/800035215/justice/trump-fraudster-pardon-only-goes-so-far/
Trump fraudster learns the hard way that a pardon only goes so far
Turns out that a pardon from President Donald Trump doesn’t actually protect you from everything.
Michele Fiore is one of the scuzzier and more low-rent denizens of Trump world. She scammed people out of $70,000 in donations that she solicited for a statue to honor a slain police officer, instead spending it on cosmetic surgery, rent, and her daughter’s wedding.
That is, of course, illegal, but lining your pockets is pretty much a requirement for Trumpy types these days. And honestly, $70,000? That’s pocket change in Trump land.
Now, Trump was going to pardon her—probably in part because she goes by the nickname “Lady Trump,” which is equal parts horrifying and pathetic. But sadly for Fiore, a presidential pardon does nothing to get her out of the judicial misconduct charges she faces in Nevada.
Fiore is, inexplicably, a justice of the peace—despite not being a lawyer. She’s been charged with violating the Revised Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct because, after being sworn in as a judge in December 2022, she failed to inform donors that she stole their funds and to return them.
Her stick fingers did, however, get her convicted of seven felonies, which Trump made go away. But the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline said that her convictions were still an ethical problem, as they created a perception that her “honesty, impartiality, temperament, or fitness to serve as a judge is adversely affected.”
This should not be a remarkable or controversial stance. Normal people do not like going before a judge who sees no problem with lying to people about honoring police while instead getting some nips and tucks on the dimes of the gullible.
But Fiore has been fighting this for ages.
First, she argued that the commission didn’t have the right to suspend her because her crime occurred before she became a judge. Nope, said the Nevada Supreme Court, noting that since she didn’t give the money back when she became a judge, she improperly enriched herself while she was a judge.
Somehow, Fiore’s argument that it isn’t fraud because the donors aren’t mad at all and still love her didn’t land with the state’s highest court. Weird, right?
After that didn’t work, Fiore demanded that the Nevada Supreme Court remove her suspension because it’s not fair to be mean to her about something she did before she became a judge. Her lawyer even got in on the stupidity, arguing that the court wasn’t letting Fiore resume her duties simply because they were upset she got a pardon.
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While there’s no real evidence whatsoever that the justices were upset, what would be wrong with that? Neither Trump nor Fiore sees anything wrong with literal fraud, which is genuinely upsetting to people tasked with upholding the rule of law.
You’ll note that Fiore’s crime here was very small compared to the usual high-profile Trump pardons, but that’s because there are two distinct pathways to a pardon from him.
If you’re remarkably rich—no matter what your crime—you can net a pardon by bribing Trump, either by purchasing his family’s worthless crypto thingy or by donating an eye-popping amount to Trump himself.
Fiore is in the other camp, which consists of pardons for people who committed the same types of crimes that Trump did or who say they were prosecuted because they support Trump.
Take former Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper, Virginia, for example. Jenkins took $75,000 in bribes from people who wanted to be deputy sheriffs to get out of speeding tickets and from a convicted felon who wanted his gun rights restored.
Trump declared that this was persecution by “Radical Left monsters” and that Jenkins was “left for dead.”
Similarly, Trump’s pardon of reality TV fraudsters Todd and Julie Chrisley was no doubt in part because of his own reality TV background. But it was also because they were convicted of fraud and tax evasion, and Trump’s relationship with the truth when it comes to taxes is … nonexistent.
What better way for Trump to show his utter disdain for the judicial system and rule of law?
Trump can be as mad as he wants, but pardons only stretch so far. Fiore is going to have to fight Nevada’s judicial commission all by herself.
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