Elon Musk weighed on a movement to pardon former police officer Derek Chauvin, saying the controversial action was ‘something to think about.’ 

Chauvin, the disgraced Minneapolis police officer who was found guilty of killing George Floyd in 2020, is currently serving simultaneous state and federal prison sentences in an Arizona federal facility.

The Daily Wire, led by Ben Shapiro, has launched a campaign to seek a pardon for Chauvin through an open letter addressed to Donald Trump, labeling his conviction as “the standout accomplishment of the Woke movement in American politics.”

According to the letter, Chauvin’s actions did not result in Floyd’s death as he was allegedly “under the influence of fentanyl” and “suffered from a serious underlying heart ailment,” experiencing breathing difficulties prior to the fatal incident.

Shapiro also cites that Chauvin was never accused of targeting Floyd for his race and that ‘for large segments’ of the video showing the encounter, his knee was on Floyd’s shoulder or back, not his neck. 

‘Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation,’ Shapiro said.

Musk reposted a video of Shapiro arguing for Chauvin to be pardoned by the president and commented: ‘Something to think about.’

Shapiro added that the incident would allow the country to ‘turn the page’ on the ‘Woke’ era and end ‘the weaponization of the American justice system.’

Elon Musk suggested that a movement to pardon former police officer Derek Chauvin was ‘something to think about’ in a post to social media

Ben Shapiro ‘s The Daily Wire has begun an effort to pardon Chauvin with an open letter to Donald Trump, calling his conviction ‘the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics’

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House and the Daily Wire for comment.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that Trump’s potential pardon wouldn’t ‘free’ Chauvin since he’s still concurrently serving a state sentence.

‘The only conceivable purpose would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law,’ Ellison told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Chauvin’s anticipated release date is December 10, 2035. 

Last December, Chauvin’s legal team was been granted permission to examine heart tissue and fluid samples taken from the victim’s body in an attempt to challenge his conviction.

US District Judge Paul Magnuson granted the motion Monday, after attorneys argued it was a heart condition that claimed the 46-year-old victim’s life, and not Chauvin’s knee on his neck.

The May 2020 encounter has lived in infamy since sparking swift public outcry as Floyd had been an unarmed black man accused of a non-violent crime. 

The North Carolina native had been suspected of using a fake $20 bill at a local store, leading to the fatal encounter with Chauvin and three other officers. 

Chauvin, the disgraced Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering George Floyd back in 2020, is currently serving concurrent state and federal sentences in a federal prison in Arizona

Attempting to restrain the man, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for what officials would later deem was 9 minutes and 29 seconds, fatally asphyxiating him in the process.

In his final moments, Floyd uttered the words ‘I can’t breathe’ – creating a rallying cry for a subsequent civil rights movement in the process.

Chauvin, 46, was convicted the following year, and is now in a little more than three years into his 21-year federal prison sentence.

His latest bid to have the conviction tossed cites ‘ineffective assistance of counsel’ from original defense attorney Eric Nelson, whom he says failed to relay to him a Kansas forensic pathologist’s theory that Chauvin did not cause Floyd’s death. 

‘Given the significant nature of the criminal case that [Chauvin] was convicted of, and given that the discovery that [he] seeks could support [the pathologist’s] opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow [Chauvin] to take the discovery,’ Magnuson wrote upon making his decision.

He added how Chauvin’s defense team will now have the ability to procure evidence from histology slides and tissue samples taken from the victim’s heart during his initial autopsy, the results of which were used to convict Chauvin and three others.

Chauvin, meanwhile, was fired, and charged with second – and third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was eventually found guilty of all three, in addition to two federal counts of violating Floyd’s civil rights.

He is now serving his state and federal sentences concurrently at a federal prison in Arizona, where he stabbed by another inmate 22 times with an improvised knife. 

Chauvin addresses the court at the Hennepin County Courthouse in 2021

He was seriously injured as a result, but has since recovered.

The incident in the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson – a medium-security prison – came days after filed the now-approved motion in court based on a theory by Topeka-based Dr. William Schaetzel. 

Schaetzel aired his belief such tests would show evidence of a heart condition called takotsubo cardiomyopathy and claimed in an interview that his trial had been ‘a sham.’

Months earlier, in January of last year, he saw an appeal tossed surrounding the argument that pretrial publicity and ongoing civil unrest led to an unfair trial. 

As for the second appeal, the pathologist responsible for the theory did not examine Floyd’s body, nor did review autopsy reports.

He and Chauvin began communicating in February of last year year, at which time the Topeka resident told the Associated Press: ‘I can’t go to my grave with what I know. I just want the truth.’

Chauvin is demanding a new trial or at least an evidentiary hearing, depending on the fruits of the fresh discovery process. 

The current motion to appeal would apply to the former conviction, leaving only the state one to be served.

It saw Chauvin claim Nelson failed to seek testing of Floyd’s heart tissue samples during the high profile case, after Topeka-based Dr. William

The May 2020 encounter has since lived in infamy, after is saw the desgraced officer kneel on Floyd’s neck for what officials would later say was 9 minutes and 29 seconds

US District Judge Paul Magnuson granted the motion Monday, after attorneys argued it was a heart condition that claimed the 46-year-old’s life, and not Chauvin’s knee on his neck Chauvin was seen in video footage doing just that, as Floyd cried out that he couldn’t breathe

A temporary condition, it develops in response to an intense emotional or physical experience, leading to a sudden, temporary weakening of the muscular portion of a patient’s heart, causing cardiac arrest.

Chauvin’s lawyers are thus also allowed to inspect and make copies of any photographs taken of Floyd’s heart during the initial autopsy, which found Floyd’s heart had stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide.

The official cause of death was ‘cardiopulmonary arrest [caused by] law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression’.

A second autopsy, this one commissioned by Floyd’s family, came to the same conclusion, citing asphyxia specifically as the cause of death. 

It also ruled out the possibility that underlying medical problems contributed to Floyd’s passing, citing how Floyd was able to speak under the pressure of Chauvin’s knee.

As a result, in March 2021, not even a year after the murder, Minneapolis’s city council awarded Floyd’s family a $27million settlement in response to their wrongful death lawsuit.