The Trevor Milton pardon: $1.8M in donations, then $680M in restitution vanishes

Editor's note: the pardon is on the official record, and reporting of federal campaign records documents the Miltons' donations to the president's reelection effort, but those records themselves are not in the evidence.

Trevor Milton, founder of electric-truck maker Nikola, was convicted in October 2022 of securities and wire fraud for lying about 'nearly all aspects' of the business - including a promotional video of a truck 'in motion' that was actually rolling downhill - and sentenced in December 2023 to four years, a $1 million fine, and a court-ordered $168 million owed to Nikola. Free on appeal, he wrote his first six-figure political checks in the month before the 2024 election: $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee and $750,000 to RFK Jr.'s MAHA Alliance PAC - over $1.8 million with his wife, per FEC records.

Two weeks after prosecutors asked the court to order $680 million in restitution to Nikola shareholders plus $15.2 million to victim Peter Hicks, Trump called Milton personally on March 27, 2025 to tell him he was pardoned - full and unconditional. The pardon extinguished the restitution: the judge could no longer order it, and victims, some of whom prosecutors said lost their life savings, recover nothing. Reuters reported RFK Jr. had lobbied for the pardon; Milton's attorney is the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi (a person close to the matter told the FT he was not involved). Nikola itself was in Chapter 11 within weeks.

Milton, who had compared his prosecution to Trump's, framed the pardon as vindication: 'This pardon is not just about me - it's about every American who has been railroaded by the government.' He confirmed he had sold over $300 million in Nikola stock in 2021 and said he would not repay investors.