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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Anna Betts

Trump white-collar criminal pardons cost public $1bn, says ex-DoJ official

a woman wearing purple jacket and glasses speaks into a microphone
Liz Oyer testifies during a House hearing in Washington DC last month. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

The justice department’s pardon attorney, who was recently fired, has claimed on social media that Donald Trump’s recent wave of pardoning white-collar criminals has erased more than “$1bn in debts owed by wealthy Americans” to the public purse.

In a TikTok video, Liz Oyer, who has said that she was terminated in March after refusing to comply with an order to restore the gun rights of the actor Mel Gibson – a supporter of Trump’s – explained that “when you’re convicted of a financial crime like fraud or embezzlement, the law requires you to pay back the money that you stole. It’s called restitution.”

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