President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who was convicted of insider trading and securities fraud tied to stock transactions made after leaving office.
The pardon was issued on Thursday and announced by the White House on Friday.
Buyer served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011 and later worked as a consultant and lobbyist.
He was sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 in gains and pay a $10,000 fine.
He was released in 2025 after serving nearly two years in prison. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in May to hear his appeal.
In the proclamation, Trump granted Buyer a “full, complete and unconditional pardon.”
The White House said Buyer’s service as a U.S. Army judge advocate general and member of Congress “was distinguished and highly productive.”
The proclamation also stated that Trump acted on the advice and recommendation of 52 current and former members of Congress.
Trump had previously shared letters on his Truth Social platform supporting a pardon for Buyer.
One letter, signed by more than 40 former Republican lawmakers, argued that Buyer had been unfairly targeted because of his political history.
A second letter from five current House Republicans said a pardon would bring justice to his case.
Buyer welcomed the decision and maintained that he was innocent of the charges.
Federal prosecutors accused Buyer of using confidential information obtained through his consulting work to make illegal stock trades.
The case centered on trading connected to the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in 2018, and transactions involving Navigant before its acquisition by Guidehouse was publicly disclosed.
Prosecutors said Buyer earned more than $100,000 from Sprint-related trades and more than $200,000 from trades involving Navigant.
A jury convicted him in March 2023 on four counts of securities fraud.
During the trial, Buyer denied trading on inside information.
Prosecutors argued that he had violated the trust of clients and sought a three-year prison sentence.
Presidential pardons do not erase criminal records, but they represent the exercise of broad constitutional authority to grant clemency for federal offenses.