Republican Steven Byer was convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison, but maintains his innocence.
Published June 6, 2026
President Donald Trump pardoned former Republican Congressman Steven Byer from Indiana, who served nearly two years in prison for illegal stock trading based on inside information after leaving office.
The pardon was announced by the White House late Friday night, with a Thursday date.
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Bayer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for deals he made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 in illegal profits and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.
The Supreme Court dismissed Buyer’s appeal in May without comment or dissent.
In granting Bayer a “full, complete and unconditional pardon,” President Trump cited the Republican’s accomplishments as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army and as a politician in the U.S. House of Representatives. President Trump described his career as “an outstanding and very productive one.”
Bayer said the pardon was “a corrective to politically motivated prosecutions” and that “it’s horrible to be imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit.” He claims he is innocent.
On May 31, President Trump took to his Truth social media platform to share a pair of letters calling for a presidential pardon for Bayer, a Gulf War veteran and attorney who retired in 2011.
He served as a House prosecutor in the 1998 impeachment trial of Democratic President Bill Clinton, and in 2016 was a member of the Trump administration’s transition team, focusing on veterans issues.
The letter, signed by more than 40 former Republicans in Congress, said Mr. Byer was “targeted by the deep state” for his involvement in the Clinton trial.
“Mr. President, like you, Steve is a victim of the laws enacted by the Biden administration,” they wrote in the April 2025 letter.
A second letter from five current House Republicans said Byer’s pardon would bring justice to his case. The June 2025 letter was signed by Oklahoma’s Tom Cole, California’s Ken Calvert, Indiana’s Marlin Stutzman, Michigan’s Jack Bergman and Texas’ Pete Sessions.
Mr. Bayer, 67, was convicted in connection with insider trading in the $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint announced in April 2018, and in connection with illegal transactions when his client Guidehouse planned to acquire management consulting firm Navigant in a deal that was made public weeks later.
The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad powers to grant pardons for federal crimes.
Although a pardon does not erase a recipient’s criminal record, it can be considered an act of mercy or justice.
