Will former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin be pardoned for his federal charges stemming from the death of George Floyd?
It seems more likely under the current administration.
On Thursday, the Washington Times reported that Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro started a campaign urging President Donald Trump to pardon Chauvin for his June 2021 federal conviction.
On Tuesday, Shapiro posted to social media platform X a video where he made his case and linked to a website for the campaign called PardonDerek.com.
DOGE chair Elon Musk reposted the video, commenting, “Something to think about.”
Something to think about https://t.co/KbZQEMpFXP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2025
“President Trump should in fact pardon Derek Chauvin,” Shapiro asserted.
Speaking on Floyd’s death that spawned the infamous Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, as well as everything Trump has done to undo the damage of the last four years, Shapiro added that “when it came to BLM, the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in the United States and set America’s race relations on their worst footing in my lifetime, was in fact the railroading of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.”
Should Officer Chauvin be pardoned?
Yes: 93% (1386 Votes)
No: 7% (107 Votes)
Shapiro laid out how the evidence against Chauvin and the trial did lend toward the false narrative that the death of Floyd was the racially charged murder of a black man by a white police officer.
After giving all the details, Shapiro made the case for pardoning Chauvin.
“I think it is worthwhile to remember that there is a man who is rotting in prison because the media decided in the middle of 2020 that they were going to turn a tragic law enforcement stop that ended with the death of a man that had a significant problem with drugs and preexisting health problems into the raison d’etat of the entire 2020 election,” the commentator said.
Per the Times, Chauvin is also serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence for state charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
He would still have to serve time for his state charges and would likely be transferred to a state prison in Minneapolis, away from the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, Texas, where he is currently held.
If Musk is seriously considering Shapiro’s message, then it could very well get back to Trump.
The president is not one to let political pressures decide what executive action he takes.
Pardoning the J6ers during his first day in office outraged leftists across the country, but the president knew it needed to be done.
Further, the Times reported Trump has pardoned other police officers, as he did in January for two convicted in the 2020 death of a motorcyclist who was trying to evade arrest.
A pardon of Chauvin would awaken the leftists’ unjustified indignation toward Trump, but what else is new?
The president will be a magnet for the left’s scorn anyway. He might as well make it so for a just cause.
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