Trump Issues Pardon To Chandra Yadav For Election Interference In Georgia
WASHINGTON, DC – US President Donald Trump has given a preemptive pardon to Republican Party loyalist C B Chandra Yadav, along with several high-profile political figures involved in Trump’s attempts to change the 2020 election results.
Yadav is the owner and CEO of the Gope group of companies, and his businesses include several grocery stores and motels. He graduated from B N College of Engineering in Pusad, Maharashtra, before coming to the US for graduate studies in management.
The interference with the 2020 election centered around Trump’s pressuring Georgia officials to find enough votes to overturn former President Joe Biden’s win in the state.
Yadav and some others are said to have submitted a fake list of electors who were to participate in the electoral college that finally elects the president.
Trump’s pardons, announced on November 10, cover only possible federal offences, meaning federal prosecutors cannot charge him in the future.
Yadav could, however, face state-level charges in Georgia regarding his involvement in the 2020 election case, as the US judicial system separates federal and state prosecutions, meaning Trump’s pardon does not extend to state cases.
A grand jury in Georgia recommended in 2023 charging him in the alleged election interference case, along with 38 others. But local prosecutors did not prosecute him.
The pardon is symbolic because it is unlikely that federal prosecutors would bring charges against him, and it does not apply to state prosecutions.
Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin released the names of people who were given the presidential reprieve, and it included Trump’s lawyers, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
In his order, Trump said the pardon “ends grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation”.
The pardon does not cover Trump, and were he to attempt a self-pardon, it would face legal questions. (IANS)
Jagjit Singh. Los Altos, CA
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60 Minutes investigation exposing the corruption of the presidential pardon power should force Americans to confront an uncomfortable truth: both major political parties have weaponized pardons in ways that undermine the rule of law.
November 23, 2025Republicans often point to Bill Clinton’s infamous pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich—a man whose ex-wife was a major Democratic donor—as proof of Democratic corruption. Clinton also pardoned his own brother, Roger Clinton, for drug offenses, a clear act of personal favoritism. Presidents Obama and Carter issued highly controversial clemencies as well, including the commutations of Chelsea Manning and FALN leader Óscar López Rivera, and Carter’s blanket amnesty for Vietnam draft evaders—all criticized for bypassing traditional accountability.
But Republicans have committed even more brazen abuses. Donald Trump used the pardon power as a shield for political loyalists and criminal allies: Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Joe Arpaio, and corrupt congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins. Trump’s pardons to wealthy insiders with financial ties to his orbit—and his willingness to override the Justice Department’s review system—represent a particularly dangerous form of political and personal self-protection. George H.W. Bush’s Iran-Contra pardons similarly wiped away accountability for senior officials on the eve of trial.
The lesson is clear: when presidents use clemency to reward donors, protect allies, or erase crimes committed by the powerful, they convert a constitutional tool of mercy into a political weapon. This is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It is a systemic threat to equal justice.
Congress must enact strict transparency requirements, restore the independence of the pardon attorney’s office, and ensure that no president—of either party—can turn clemency into a marketplace for influence. The integrity of our justice system depends on it.