Conservative media figure Ben Shapiro launched a petition calling on President Trump to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
“We write to urge you to immediately issue a pardon for Officer Derek Chauvin, who was unjustly convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for the murder of George Floyd and associated federal charges,” Shapiro wrote in a letter addressed to the president.
Floyd’s death ignited nationwide protests in 2020, after video footage was widely circulated showing Floyd pleading, “I can’t breathe,” as the then-Minneapolis police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes
The episode led to months of protests and coincided with the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Shapiro, in the letter, described the death as “the inciting event for the BLM riots,” which he noted caused significant property damaged and “set America’s race relations on their worst footing in recent memory.” He also pointed to what he viewed as gaps in the evidence presented at trial.
But most importantly, Shapiro said in the letter, was the “massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation,” noting even elected lawmakers “pre-judged the outcome of the trial and took to national media to create pressure on the jury to go along with their preferred narrative.”
“Under these circumstances, there was no opportunity for blind justice to work, and a man is now rotting in prison because of it,” Shapiro said in the letter.
Chauvin was convicted in two separate trials and is simultaneously serving a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22.5-year state sentence for second-degree murder. He has tried to appeal his conviction numerous times.
Shapiro, in a separate video describing his petition, noted that Trump cannot pardon Chauvin in the state murder case but still said it was important Chauvin be pardoned on federal charges.
“Make no mistake—the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics. The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive, and racist era without righting this terrible wrong,” Shapiro said in the letter.
“Thank you for your commitment to ending the weaponization of the American justice system,” he added, thanking Trump.
The president has leaned into his pardon power, most notably issuing sweeping pardons for defendants convicted on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump administration for a response to Shapiro’s petition.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, a senior adviser to the president, posted about Shapiro’s petition on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“Something to think about,” Musk wrote.
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