Donald Trump’s 2020 pardon for a bank robber-turned-nonprofit CEO called him “a source of inspiration for former inmates who desire to rebuild their lives when they leave prison.” But by this past spring, that pardoned man, Jon Ponder, 60, was banned from state prison property. Then, on Tuesday, he was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting inmates. Ponder faces 20 charges, including one count of sexual assault, seven counts of unauthorized custodial contact, one count of attempted coercion and 11 gross misdemeanor charges after several incarcerated women accused him of abusing his position to solicit sex.
He is the latest recipient of a Trump pardon to be later charged with new crimes, a list that includes nearly 100 Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom have since been charged with sex offenses ranging from sexual assault to possession of child pornography. Ponder pleaded guilty to bank robbery in 2005 and served a 63-month sentence, according to the White House. Trump pardoned him on the second night of the Republican National Convention in 2020.
At least four women have accused Ponder of exploiting his position with his HOPE for Prisoners organization to solicit oral sex and phone sex and make other inappropriate advances while they were incarcerated, according to arrest reports. Police called Ponder’s phone seven times on Tuesday, but he ignored their calls and refused to leave his home as investigators tried to search the property, according to police. Investigators reportedly found 1.3 grams of methamphetamine at his home.
He was later arrested and held inside the Clark County Detention Center. He was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Thursday. The Constitution grants sweeping pardon authority to the president, who has wielded his clemency powers dozens of times over his two terms in office.
On his first day back inside the White House last January, Trump issued pardons for virtually everyone accused of crimes connected to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, including rioters convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers, among other crimes. At least 97 people pardoned in connection with the attack have been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of crimes separate from the January 6 riots in the aftermath of those pardons, according to an analysis from Lawfare. Andrew Paul Johnson, who broke through a Capitol window on Jan. 6, was sentenced to life in prison in March for molesting a 12-year-old boy and a girl of the same age.
That same month, Daniel Tocci — who was among members of the mob that stormed the halls of Congress — was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of more than 110,000 child pornography images. They are among at least five people whose crimes were likely facilitated by Trump’s pardons, according to Lawfare. In those cases, the president’s clemency set free an incarcerated person who went on to allegedly commit another crime within the time period he would have still been imprisoned if Trump hadn’t released him.
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