Trump to pardon sheriff found guilty of ‘cash-for-badges’ scheme

President Donald Trump said he would be pardoning a former Virginia sheriff facing a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted of bribery and fraud charges.

Scott Jenkins and his family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump said in a post on social media.

“He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead,’ ” Trump added. “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.”

Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, was found guilty in a jury trial last December, with prosecutors accusing him of having accepted more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing wealthy businessmen from the area as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position. Federal prosecutors called it a “cash-for-badges” bribery scheme.

The Justice Department did not list Jenkins as having been pardoned as of midafternoon Monday, a federal holiday.