INV-015 · Money & ethics · Pardons
Pardon after a $1M-a-head fundraiser
Stage 1 of 5: Reported · News reporting only · Last development 27 May 2025
Trump pardoned former nursing home executive Paul Walczak, who withheld over $10 million in employee taxes, less than three weeks after his mother, a major Trump fundraiser, attended a $1-million-per-person dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
- People
- Donald Trump, Paul Walczak, Elizabeth Fago
- Agencies
- White House
- Reviewed by
- Press
Money involved
- $4.38 million Restitution erased by Walczak's pardon (Restitution and fines erased by pardons) [2]
Timeline
The New York Times reports Trump signed a full pardon less than three weeks after the dinner, and 12 days after Walczak was sentenced to 18 months and about $4.4M in restitution. [1]
Trump grants Walczak a full pardon, which wipes out the prison term and restitution (DOJ clemency list). [3]
Walczak sentenced to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release and $4,381,265.76 in restitution for employment-tax crimes. He withheld $7.4M from employees' pay and did not pay it to the IRS from 2016 to 2019. [2]
His mother, Elizabeth Fago, attends a MAGA Inc. dinner at Mar-a-Lago priced at $1M per person, less than three weeks before the pardon. [1]
Walczak pleads guilty to two tax counts. [1]
Responses
- White House official: Walczak was "targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics." [1]
Sources
Cite this case
Public Trust Tracker. "Pardon after a $1M-a-head fundraiser" (INV-015). Last updated 27 May 2025. https://publictrusttracker.org/case/inv-015-pardon-after-a-1m-a-head-fundraiser/
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