On Monday, President Donald Trump pardoned Scott Jenkins, a former sheriff in Culpeper, Virginia, who was convicted in December of bribery and fraud. Who is Jenkins, and what might have put him on Trump’s radar? Here are five things to know:
He’s something of a MAGA micro-celebrity
Jenkins has MAGA-friendly views on issues including gun control, immigration and pandemic shutdown orders. He’s been featured on the conservative website Breitbart.com multiple times and also made the rounds on the conservative podcast circuit, appearing on shows such as The Daily Signal—which has hundreds of thousands of listeners—to discuss the Second Amendment.
He rose to fame opposing gun control
In 2019, Jenkins vowed to “deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms.” He made this proclamation—which raised his profile enough to land him a few Fox and Friends appearances—in response to proposed gun control legislation in Virginia.
He was convicted of bribery for swearing in local businessmen as auxiliary sheriffs
In 2011, Jenkins began accepting campaign contributions in exchange for naming the contributors as auxiliary sheriff deputies, giving them the ability to conceal carry and evade traffic tickets, according to court documents. In 2019, according to the same court records, Jenkins took a $25,000 bribe from a Fairfax County businessman whose several non-violent felony convictions prevented him from owning a gun; in exchange, Jenskins helped to restore the man’s firearm license and later deputized him as an auxiliary sheriff.
In total, according to court documents, Jenkins took over $70,000 in bribes from a number of area businessmen and two undercover FBI agents before he was indicted in 2023.
Jenkins has said his bribery conviction is connected to Hunter Biden’s laptop
Jenkins is a member of Protect America Now, a group that believes it’s the responsibility of sheriffs to push back against “an overreaching government.” In late 2022, members of the group, including Jenkins, discussed the possibility of flying to a secret location to view the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive and bring charges against him based on the crimes depicted within, Jenkins said in an interview with Steve Bannon the day after his pardoning.
Jenkins also said he believed the call had been wiretapped by the FBI, triggering his indictment.
“That call, anyone with a braincell knows, if you’re the lowliest agent in the FBI, and you hear going after the President or his son, you are obligated to send that up the chain,” he said in the interview with Bannon. “So there’s not a prayer in hell that the AG didn’t hear that directly, and that the gloves didn’t come off. Because, suddenly in a matter of weeks, all hell broke loose.”
A sentencing memorandum written and submitted to the court by Jenkins attorney Philip Andonian also recounts the Hunter Biden laptop call, but omits any accusation of wiretapping. The memo states that Jenkins “adamantly maintains his innocence.”
Andonian did not respond to multiple requests for comment by Washingtonian.
It’s unclear, exactly, why Trump pardoned him
On a webinar with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group similar to Protect America Now, Jenkins appealed to Trump, NBC 4 reported last month. Ed Martin, who Trump initially appointed as Interim US Attorney for DC before he was installed as US pardon attorney, appears to be a fan of Jenkins, posting on X to thank Trump and announce he was “thrilled” Jenkins was the first pardon since he took the job.
In a Truth Social post announcing the Jenkins pardon, Trump called the judge in his trial a “Biden Judge” and also wrote that Jenkins “is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.”
