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Trump Pardons Former Sheriff Scott Jenkins to Counter Biden’s ‘Corrupt and Weaponized’ Dept. of Justice

    Yesterday, Donald Trump was announced a fresh pardon. Via TruthSocial:

    We will cut and paste the entire post, because TruthSocial posts have a bad habit of going wonky later down the line:





    Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ. In fact, during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade. As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence. This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ 

    This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon. He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.

    (Line break added.) And folks, let us suggest you read that post carefully. Some of that language is going to be real important in a minute.

    But to give a little background, we learn more here:

    From the article:

    President Donald Trump on Monday granted an unconditional pardon to a Virginia sheriff who had been convicted of federal bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

    Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday. … 

    Jenkins faced a jury trial in late 2024 but wasn’t sentenced until March 2025 under the Trump administration. Acting U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee, who represented the U.S. government, and therefore the Trump administration, in the case, is still serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia. …

    Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 on charges including one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery concerning federally funded programs.

    Basically, it involved a scheme where he allegedly did various official acts in exchange for people promising to donate to his campaign. Most prominently he appointed many of these donors as ‘auxiliary deputy sheriffs.’ And this, allegedly, gave them real power, and without giving them real training, which gets into another set of charges where allegedly he engaged in honest services fraud in relation to a federal program.

    But was he treated fairly? Was he actually guilty? Bluntly, we don’t pretend to know. So, we searched around for people who defended him before the pardon. We found two websites making the argument, but the first is the most interesting, coming from Law Enforcement Today:

    Recommended

    And we will quote a large part of their argument. Read it carefully. Maybe you will notice what we noticed?

    Sheriff Jenkins came to national prominence in 2020 during the pro-2A rally at the Virginia State Capitol, a frequent guest on networks such as CNN, Fox News, and others. That apparently caught the attention of someone, as did a call Jenkins participated in with several other sheriffs in December 2022 that was subject to an FBI wiretap, unbeknownst to Jenkins. During that call, the subject of the Hunter Biden laptop was raised. Others on the call included Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County, Florida, and Sheriff Mike Lewis of Wicomico County, Maryland.  

    The plan was to get half a dozen sheriffs to review the laptop, which they were told contained evidence of crimes, including child pornography, sex crimes, and possible treason by members of the first family. They would then seek criminal charges in their respective jurisdictions against Hunter Biden.

    Jenkins believes that the FBI agents monitoring the wiretap passed that information on to someone in the Department of Justice, which he alleges triggered his indictment just a few weeks later.

    The editorial goes on to talk about a different Sheriff Jenkins and his ordeal in Arizona and then returns to the newly-pardoned Sheriff Jenkins:

    This brings us to Sheriff Scott Jenkins and Culpeper County. In 2022, Jenkins was allegedly involved in a ‘cash for badges’ scheme that came out from a former Culpeper County auxiliary deputy sheriff assisting federal investigators in a ‘sting’ operation. According to our sources, that source, Kevin Rychlik, was indicted in a tax evasion scheme where he owed over $3.4 million in delinquent taxes. 

    More recently, Rychlik is accused of shutting down a Virginia flight school, stiffing students out of untold amounts of money. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Aug 6, 2024, citing business debt between $10 and $50 million. Rychlik has claimed he is ‘dealing with serious health complications’ after allegedly suffering a series of strokes. In other words, Rychlik had plenty of motivation to assist the feds to save his own hide.

    When he was arrested for the tax evasion scheme, Rychlik threw his longtime friend and associate, Sheriff Jenkins, under the bus, no doubt to try to save his hide with the feds. According to WVIR-29, Rychlik testified during Jenkins’ trial that he had known him since 2011, claiming that he gave Jenkins $5,000 in exchange for being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy sheriff.

    Over the next ten years, Rychlik alleged, he would be bringing so-called ‘money guys’ to Jenkins who would donate to his campaign or the sheriff’s office, and in return get an auxiliary deputy sheriff’s badge. That is Rychlik’s side of the story. 

    Law Enforcement Today conducted a lengthy interview with Sheriff Jenkins, who told us that Rychlik owned VASAR (Virginia Search and Rescue), which would assist law enforcement utilizing airborne assets such as small aircraft, helicopters, and drones for cases such as fleeing felons, missing persons, and other incidents. 

    It was after an incident in 2012 where a suspect shot at Rychlik when he requested an appointment as an auxiliary deputy sheriff for himself and members of his company, and he was appointed as sergeant in charge of auxiliary deputy sheriffs. 

    Jenkins explained that as a sheriff, citizens donate to his campaign (as with any politician) since he has to be elected to office. He said some citizens also donate to the office for equipment.

    He expressly denied taking cash in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, who he said carry no weapons, have no arrest authority, and often do not wear uniforms. He noted that in most cases, such an appointment is honorary in nature. He noted that some celebrities, such as country singer Jellyroll, have been appointed as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, in his case in Michigan. Shaquille O’Neal is another such example. 

    Jenkins explained that the $5,000 was a campaign donation…nothing less, nothing more—in the case of Rychlik. He also noted that not everyone who made a campaign or sheriff’s office donation was sworn in as auxiliary deputies. 

    Virginia has the oldest sheriff’s department in the US, and sheriffs have broad authority, unlike police chiefs. Auxiliary deputy sheriffs in Virginia have limited authority. They are unpaid, do not have to meet the exact training requirements as deputy sheriffs or police officers, must meet specific age requirements, and, in the case of Culpeper County at least, must have a high school diploma or equivalent.

    As part of the sting operation on Jenkins, Rychik wore a wire and brought people before him with cash donations, who were then allegedly sworn in as Auxiliary Deputy Sheriffs. This was clearly designed as a setup and appeared to be an effort for Rychlik to endear himself to the feds, who were no doubt anxious to go after a sheriff who was, in their mind, operating against the Biden administration. 

    Jenkins said that as part of the operation, Rychlik would ask questions in a particular way when bringing in prospects to attempt to elicit incriminating responses from Jenkins. He said he didn’t notice it initially; however, after everything started to come out, he realized it was a setup. At trial, the only people who testified against Jenkins were those brought in by Rychlik. 

    Jenkins explained that he would never have risked going to jail over money, noting that his financial situation was stable.

    One allegation made by the court was that Jenkins used his brother to ‘launder’ money. In one case, Jenkins took out a loan from a family friend who was in the loan business for $35,000. Since he was working on building a home at the time, he gave his brother $9,000 of that money, and his brother gave him the money back in order to pay for some of his expenses, such as grading, concrete, etc., for the new home.

    He noted that many contractors offer a discount if they are paid in cash to avoid tax implications. That is perhaps improper for the contractors, but it is not illegal for Jenkins to do so. 

    The court also suggested that Jenkins had taken $95,000 in bribes; however, of that amount, $75,000 was part of a business deal Jenkins had arranged back in 2020. The rest were campaign donations.

    After the gun rally at the Virginia capital, Jenkins copyrighted the term ‘Make Virginia Great Again,’ and worked with someone to produce merchandise such as hats and shirts. The merchandise was going to be sold on Amazon by his business associate, however, COVID happened and the merchandise was put in a storage unit, where it still sits today. 

    As we have seen in a number of federal trials lately, federal judges are very adept at not allowing exculpatory information into evidence. In this case, Judge Robert Ballou, a district judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, a Biden appointee, went on an unhinged tirade against Sheriff Jenkins in court. 

    He accused him of hiring ‘unqualified, unvetted people who were untrained and you didn’t train in law enforcement,’ clearly not understanding the requirements of an auxiliary deputy sheriff in Virginia. When Jenkins tried to raise the requirements in court, Ballou shut him down. 

    Moreover, the defense tried to introduce other auxiliary deputy sheriffs to testify to explain not only the training and appointment criteria but also to offer background on how they were appointed, requests which Ballou again refused to allow.

    The defense attempted to raise a number of other issues, including manipulated video and audio recordings presented as evidence by the prosecution. As we have seen, in federal court, judges only allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and rules of evidence. We recently reported on a case out of New Mexico where the defense was prohibited from introducing training records, department policy, and state use of force policies as exculpatory evidence.





    It goes on to beg either President Trump or Governor Youngkin to pardon Jenkins … despite the fact that Jenkins only appears to have been charged in federal court.

    But did you spot what we spotted? Trump wrote on TruthSocial that

    As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence.

    (Emphasis added.) And the Law Enforcement Today editorial stated that 

    As we have seen, in federal court, judges only allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and rules of evidence.

    (Emphasis added, again.) As you can see from our use of boldface, Trump’s TruthSocial post mimics that language closely, which is strong evidence that this is where Trump is getting his information.

    Of course, the other possibility is that the Law Enforcement Today editorial and Trump are both borrowing from another document that they have both seen, such as the perhaps the application for clemency or some document filed in court. We report, you decide.

    Of course, we expect Congressman Shri Thanedar to introduce Articles of Impeachment for plagiarism any minute now. /sarcasm 

    But more substantively, Jenkins is claiming that these auxiliary deputy sheriffs are barely deputies at all. For instance, we talked about honest services fraud earlier but if they aren’t paid, don’t wear uniforms and have few powers, we have to question what services they would provide. And if Jenkins was not allowed to show that at trial, then that taints the jury verdict.

    But that depends on their reporting, which we have not verified. So… we report, you decide.

    The second website we found arguing for a pardon is an ‘open letter’ requesting one:

    From the letter:

    Jenkins, a decorated law enforcement officer and a loyal supporter of your campaign, is currently scheduled to begin serving a 10-year federal prison sentence he recently received. His crime? According to prosecutors, he appointed donors to unpaid auxiliary deputy roles in exchange for financial support. A serious lapse in judgment, to be sure—but the penalty handed down is nothing short of draconian, especially when compared to how other sheriffs in Virginia have behaved—and been treated by the Justice Department.

    Sheriff Jenkins’ indictment came during your reelection campaign – at a time when being a Trump ally seemed, in itself, like a liability under a hostile Justice Department. Meanwhile, Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith—another Virginia sheriff who has operated a strikingly similar auxiliary deputy program, rife with allegations of favoritism and unqualified appointments—has not faced a single federal charge.

    Smith’s conduct includes reportedly appointing romantic partners to special positions and being investigated by a federal grand jury for allegedly lying under oath in connection with his partner Felix Chujoy’s federal trial. The charges in that case included human trafficking, witness tampering, obstruction, and immigration violations. The evidence was serious—but the DOJ passed on prosecution, allegedly because they didn’t want to ‘out’ a gay sheriff. Smith remains in office today, while Jenkins sits in a federal prison.

    The contrast is undeniable. It appears Jenkins was punished not just for what he did—but for who he supported. All while the Biden Justice Department protected a far more compromised sheriff, for fear of offending progressive political constituencies.





    We don’t represent this as true, necessarily—we don’t have the capacity to fact check it—but simply as a defense you might or might not consider. We will note that this is from an outlet that this author never even heard of until a Google search found it. And unlike Law Enforcement Today, the defense is not to say that Jenkins is innocent, but rather that he is being prosecuted selectively for his political views. As regular readers know, if that was proven that would violate the First Amendment.

    Yet, it is not difficult to imagine reasonable distinctions that might exist. Most basically, the evidence against Smith might be much weaker than it was against Jenkins. Or it could be as simple as Jenkins was guilty and Smith was innocent. We have no idea if any of the allegations they make against Smith is factual. We just found it as one of the few websites arguing for Jenkins to be pardoned before it happened and thus effectively defending the pardon.

    We won’t go into a lot of reactions, because they aren’t very informative to the question of whether or not it is right for the pardon to have been issued. But we will note this reaction:

    Apparently, Mr. Martin’s new job is to review pardons and so he might have a more substantive opinion on the topic. Unfortunately, he has not shared that substantive opinion with the world as far as we have seen. But his viewpoints are likely to be more informed.

    Also this woman who wants to be the next governor of Virginia says this:

    The cut off text reads:

    He was convicted by a jury of his peers of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery. He was supposed to report to prison this week for a ten year sentence.

    The president just pardoned him in an affront to the oath he swore, the community he betrayed, the laws he broke, and the law enforcement officers who investigated this case and hold themselves to the highest ethical standard every day.

    But isn’t this always how it goes? When a Republican is president, every pardon is great to most Republicans and bad in the eyes of most Democrats and vice versa when there is a Democratic president, and that is boring in our minds. What is more interesting is when principled Democrats support Republican pardons, principled Republicans support Democrat pardons, or if people of any party give a substantive defense of a pardon or a substantive argument against it that does more than say ‘the jury said he was guilty so I think he shouldn’t be pardoned.’ That is the essence of Spanberger’s argument, and it is particularly unpersuasive when there is an allegation that the jury was not allowed to hear evidence in Jenkins’ favor that might have changed the outcome. Or is due process only for illegal immigrants?





    Finally, you might have heard several mentions of Jenkins’ strong support for Second Amendment rights. It goes a little beyond that, into an interesting zone:

    From the 2019 article:

    A Virginia sheriff has vowed to deputize county residents if the new Democratic majority in the state legislature passes gun control measures.

    At a meeting last week in which the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors joined an ever-growing list of counties in Virginia by voting unanimously to declare themselves ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary,’ Sheriff Scott jenkins vowed to deputize scores of residents, if necessary, to push back on potential state-imposed gun restrictions.

    ‘Every Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia will see the consequences if our General Assembly passes further unnecessary gun restrictions. ‘Red Flag’ laws without due process will create enormous conflict as well,’ Sheriff Scott Jenkins wrote in a Facebook post.

    ‘My office will always encourage and support our citizens in firearms training, concealed carry permits, and the ability to defend themselves and their families,’ he continued. ‘I remain very optimistic that our General Assembly will not pass the proposed bills. Obviously, if passed, there are many of us willing to challenge these laws through the courts. In addition, if necessary, I plan to properly screen and deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms.’

    He doesn’t get specific, but would he be promising to make them ‘auxiliary deputy sheriffs?’ Is this maybe why the FBI was after him and interested in that program—because he might’ve worked to thwart a state law that didn’t actually become a law, anyway? Again, we don’t know, but it is interesting.

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    Editor’s Note: Radical leftist judges are doing everything they can to hamstring President Trump’s agenda to make America great again.

    Help us hold these corrupt judges accountable for their unconstitutional rulings. Join Twitchy VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.





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