Paul Walczak was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution last month after he admitted using millions of dollars meant to pay his employees' taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The sentencing judge specifically noted there "is not a get-out-of-jail-free card" for the rich, per the New York Times. But perhaps there is. President Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to Walczak, a former nursing home executive, last month, less than three weeks after the man's mother paid $1 million to attend a fundraising dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, the outlet reports.
Walczak entered a guilty plea shortly after the 2024 election, per the Hill, and requested a pardon around the time of Trump's inauguration. His pardon application largely focused on his mother, Elizabeth Fago, claiming she's raised millions of dollars for the campaigns of Trump and other Republicans. It also cited her role in an effort to publicize the diary of former President Biden's daughter Ashley Biden as she underwent addiction treatment. For months, there was no action on the pardon application. Then, Fago, who attended VIP events at both of Trump's inaugurations, was invited to attend a $1-million-per-person fundraising dinner with Trump in Palm Beach, Florida. She attended, though her largest federal donation on record at that point was $100,000, per the Times.
The pardon for Walczak came less than three weeks later—exactly 12 days after his sentence was handed down. In a statement to the Times, a White House official says Walczak was "targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics," noting the same administration tried to rescind Fago's appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board. In fact, prosecutors said Walczak stopped paying employment taxes in 2011. He withheld more than $10 million from doctors, nurses, and other employees, spending some of that money on a $2 million yacht, luxury travel, and high-end goods, prosecutors said. (Trump just pardoned two reality-TV stars convicted of tax evasion.)
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