Ed Martin, the government’s pardon attorney, recently took to social media to announce a significant development. He shared a signed proclamation granting a “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon to several individuals, notably conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. Powell is known for promoting baseless conspiracy theories regarding a stolen election, while Eastman was involved in advocating a strategy to keep Donald Trump in power.

This proclamation, which surfaced online late Sunday (Monday night AEDT), makes it clear that the pardon does not extend to Trump himself.

Importantly, presidential pardons are limited to federal offenses, and none of the named Trump allies have faced federal charges related to the 2020 election. However, this act highlights former President Trump’s persistent attempts to fuel claims of election fraud, despite the absence of any credible evidence found by courts or US officials that could have altered the election’s outcome.

This recent action follows a series of sweeping pardons for hundreds of Trump supporters involved in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, including those who were convicted of attacking law enforcement officers.

It follows the sweeping pardons of the hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jauary 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, including those convicted of attacking law enforcement.

It follows the sweeping pardons of the hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, including those convicted of attacking law enforcement.

The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those accused of aiding Trump’s efforts to cling to power “as a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation”.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Monday.

Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump in 2020 and were charged in state cases of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in those states.

Trump himself was indicted on felony charges accusing him of working to overturn his 2020 election defeat, but the case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was abandoned in November after Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris because of the department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.

Giuliani, Meadows and others who were named in the proclamation had been charged by state prosecutors over the 2020 election, but the cases have hit a dead end or are just limping along. A judge in September dismissed the Michigan case against 15 Republicans accused of attempting to falsely certify Trump as the winner of the election in that battleground state.

Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Clark were alleged co-conspirators in the federal case brought against Trump but were never charged with federal crimes.

Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, was one of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud after the 2020 election.

He has since been disbarred in Washington, DC, and New York over his advocacy of Trump’s bogus election claims and lost a $US148 million ($226.4 million) defamation case brought by two former Georgia election workers whose lives were upended by conspiracy theories he pushed.

Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University Law School in Southern California, was a close adviser to Trump in the wake of the 2020 election and wrote a memo laying out steps Vice President Mike Pence could take to stop the counting of electoral votes while presiding over Congress’ joint session on January 6 to keep Trump in office.