Despite previous dismissals from President Donald Trump and the White House of a federal pardon for Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis police officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd, rumors of the potential clemency have been renewed.
As the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s murder approaches later this month, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis officials have indicated that they are preparing for the possibility of a presidential pardon for Chauvin and subsequent unrest in the city.
“I think it behooves us to be prepared for it. With this presidency, it seems like that might be something they would do,” Gov. Walz recently told reporters, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Walz, who ran against Trump as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate in the 2024 election, said his office received “no indication” whether the White House will issue a pardon for Chauvin, who was sentenced to 21 years after pleading guilty to federal charges for violating the civil rights of Floyd and a teenager in a separate incident. Chauvin was also sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for second-degree murder at the state level.
“If Donald Trump exercises his constitutional right to do so, whether I agree — and I strongly disagree with him — if he issues that pardon, we will simply transfer Derek Chauvin to serve out his 22-and-a-half years in prison in Minnesota,” Walz said.
Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette acknowledged that city officials have heard the rumors about a potential pardon; however, he similarly emphasized, “Derek Chauvin would remain behind bars serving his state sentence even if his federal charges are pardoned.”
He said in a statement that there was “no credible intelligence about any pardon or planned disruptions here in Minneapolis.”
Discussions of Trump potentially pardoning Chauvin have been consistent since he returned to the White House in January. Conservatives have continuously called for the president to issue clemency for the disgraced officer. Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene renewed the public campaign for Chauvin’s pardon on Wednesday, writing on X: “I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison.”
The conservative firebrand also falsely claimed Floyd “died of a drug overdose,” despite two medical examinations determining he died by homicide. Chauvin notably held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes until Floyd’s death, despite the unarmed Black man saying repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.”
In response to a request for comment from theGrio, a White House official said the Trump administration “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence of any clemency request.”
In March, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters of a possible pardon: “The president has been asked and answered this question. He said it’s not something he’s considering at this time.”
The president taking such an action would be an about-face to the position he took in 2020 as president when Floyd was murdered.
“It’s a terrible thing,” Trump said at the White House in 2020. “We all saw what we saw. It’s hard to conceive anything other than what we did see. It should have never happened.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the prosecution of Chauvin’s state criminal case, said in a statement that President Trump has “no power to pardon Chauvin’s state conviction,” and that “the only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law.”
He said plainly, “Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in front of the whole world.”
