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Left: Derek Chauvin is seen restraining George Floyd, who died in Chauvin’s custody, on May 26, 2020 (Darnella Frazier/Facebook). Right: Derek Chauvin (Minnesota Department of Corrections).
The chief of the Minneapolis Police Department has now come forward to dismiss speculation that President Donald Trump could issue a federal pardon for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd in 2020, just days after Minnesota‘s attorney general threw cold water on the idea.
“There is absolutely no credible information we have to suggest that’s going to happen,” MPD Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters Monday during a news briefing, according to local Fox affiliate KMSP. O’Hara was addressing public concerns ahead of the five-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, which happened on May 25, 2020.
“Of course, because there’s all these rumors, we’ve been in communication with our partners at the state, at the federal level to ensure that we and all of our partners are prepared in the event something like that [a Chauvin pardon] happens, and it causes some type of civil disturbance,” O’Hara said.
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Minnesota’s attorney general told MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” last week that ongoing efforts to petition Trump for a federal pardon are irrelevant when it comes to his state conviction, seeing as Chauvin “still owes Minnesota 22 ½ years,” according to AG Keith Ellison.
“He’s not getting out,” Ellison said bluntly.
Chauvin, 49, is currently serving concurrent state and federal prison sentences for killing Floyd, 46, during a police incident in which he knelt on Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted by a 12-member jury on state charges for unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He later pleaded guilty in a federal civil rights case to depriving Floyd of his rights.
Conservative pundits and Trump ally Elon Musk have promoted a push to secure a federal pardon for Chauvin in recent months. On March 4, right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro launched an online petition on his video podcast and X, urging viewers to support the effort. Musk shared a clip from the podcast on his X page, writing: “Something to think about.”
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for the civil rights conviction in June 2021. He was given 22 1/2 years for the state charges in April 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Chauvin in his state case in 2023.
“I think they’re pushing for it because they want to agitate and outrage people,” Ellison told MSNBC about the pardon. “I don’t know if Trump is going to pardon Chauvin or not, but if he does, it doesn’t change his prison sentence. He still owes Minnesota 22 ½ years, and he’s going to do it either in Minnesota or somewhere.”
O’Hara told reporters Monday that he was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month and was asked by police chiefs “from around the country” about the possibility of Chauvin being pardoned.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve told them,” he said. “There is no credible information that something like that will happen.”
Describing cellphone footage that showed Floyd’s murder, O’Hara said, “We all saw that video, we all knew it was wrong, including the president five years ago. Google it. Google his reaction to that video.”
Ellison told MSNBC that a Chauvin pardon would not be “good” for America.
“In no case is it sensible,” he said.
