Trump pardons ex-Indiana congressman Stephen Buyer convicted of insider trading

President Trump granted a full pardon to former Rep. Stephen Buyer, convicted in 2023 of securities fraud for illegal trades ahead of T-Mobile's $23B Sprint merger.

Trump clears former GOP congressman convicted of insider trading

President Trump has pardoned former US Representative Stephen Buyer, an Indiana Republican convicted of securities fraud for trading stocks on confidential merger information, nypost.com reports.

The White House announced the pardon on Friday. The proclamation, issued Thursday, cited Buyer's "distinguished and highly productive" service as a US Army judge advocate general and member of Congress, but offered no further rationale for the decision.

Trump described the pardon as "full, complete and unconditional" and stated he was acting on the "advice and recommendation" of 52 current and former members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, all named in the proclamation.

Buyer represented Indiana's 5th congressional district as a Republican from 1993 to 2011, later moving into corporate consulting. A jury found him guilty in March 2023 on four counts of securities fraud. He was sentenced in September of that year to 22 months in prison.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Buyer purchased Sprint stock in 2018 after a T-Mobile executive told him the two telecommunications companies were in merger talks — well before the $23 billion deal became public. He allegedly made illegal trades again the following year.

According to the government, Buyer profited more than $100,000 from the Sprint trades and more than $200,000 from buying shares in Navigant Consulting Inc. before its acquisition by Guidehouse in 2019.

Buyer, who served as one of the House managers during the 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, testified at his own trial and denied trading on inside information. Prosecutors countered that he had abused his clients' trust and lied under oath, and sought a three-year prison sentence.

The US Supreme Court declined in May to hear Buyer's appeal of his conviction.

Source: NYT US News