“They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. ... There are many people like that. They support Trump, and they went after him.”

Public remarks justifying the March 2025 pardon of Trevor Milton

The investigation of Trevor Milton began in September 2020, under Trump's own Justice Department, after a short-seller report exposed that Nikola had faked a promotional video by rolling a non-functioning truck down a hill. The investigation was opened during Trump's first term, when Nikola and Milton received grand jury subpoenas from the Southern District of New York; the indictment was unsealed later, under the Biden Justice Department. A unanimous federal jury (not the Biden administration) convicted Milton in October 2022 of securities fraud and wire fraud after a trial featuring witness testimony, internal documents, and Milton's own recorded statements. Judge Edgardo Ramos sentenced him to four years in prison, and in March 2025 federal prosecutors asked the court to order $675 million in restitution to the investors he defrauded.

What actually preceded the pardon was money: in October 2024, Milton and his wife each donated $900,000 to Trump political committees, about $1.8 million total. Trump pardoned Milton in late March 2025, two weeks after prosecutors sought restitution and shortly before Milton was due to report to prison, wiping out both his sentence and the restitution owed to his fraud victims.

"Trump granted him a pardon that eliminated his prison sentence and wiped away his restitution to the victims of his fraud." — The Marshall Project investigation into Trump pardons, July 28, 2025