MAGA figures fuel idea of Derek Chauvin pardon
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin after a guilty verdict was read at his state trial in 2021. Photo: Court TV via AP
Prominent supporters of President Trump — led by podcaster Ben Shapiro — are fueling a major push to pardon Derek Chauvin, the white former Minnesota police officer convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020.
- Video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes while Floyd said he "can't breathe" went viral in 2020 and sparked Black Lives Matter protests against police misconduct and systemic racism across the country.
The big picture: A Trump pardon would only affect Chauvin's federal case — where he pleaded guilty — and not the state case.
- The state conviction carries a longer sentence than the federal case, meaning he would still be in prison even if the president acts.
- Shapiro has said he hopes that Chauvin would more easily be able to win early release at some point if Trump wipes away his federal conviction and the former officer is serving time only under the state verdict.
Zoom in: Shapiro, whose podcast episodes often break the Top 10 on Apple's charts, launched the campaign early this month with a petition to convince Trump to issue the pardon. Shapiro has long dismissed the existence of systemic racism.
- Earlier this month, Trump said he hadn't heard of the push to pardon Chauvin. Shapiro's petition has now surpassed 50,000 signatures.
- Shapiro is launching a five-part docuseries titled "The Case for Derek Chauvin" that will start airing on his show Tuesday.
- Shapiro claims that Chauvin was unjustly convicted and that Floyd's death was caused by underlying health issues and drug use.
Reality check: A medical examiner who performed Floyd's autopsy testified in the 2021 murder trial that law enforcement's restraint and compression of Floyd's neck was "just more than [he] could take," given his heart's condition.
- Hennepin County medical examiner Andrew Baker ruled Floyd's death a homicide and listed the cause as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."
- He said that Floyd died due to loss or deprivation of oxygen caused by the neck restraint placed on him by the police.
- "Mr. Floyd's use of fentanyl did not cause the subdual or neck restraint. His heart disease did not cause the subdual or the neck restraint," Baker testified.
The intrigue: Some of MAGA's most influential figures are paying attention to Shapiro's petition.
- Elon Musk posted that the idea was "something to think about." Charlie Kirk hosted Shapiro on his podcast in a show of support for the effort.
- Shapiro tells Axios: "[I]f you actually do want to get a pardon for somebody, then typically you have to build a groundswell of support for that to become a political reality."
What's next: Shapiro says he's in touch with Chauvin's legal team about what "they're interested in pursuing." His podcast could focus beyond just Chauvin to examine other similar cases, including the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and Breonna Taylor in Louisville in 2020.
- "This is the most obvious example," Shapiro said of Chauvin. "But if people can provide me other examples of police officers who have been railroaded in this way, I'm more than happy to look at it for sure."
Axios' Russell Contreras contributed reporting.
