# Trump says 'I haven't even heard' about a pardon for Derek Chauvin

## By Joey Garrison, USA TODAY

### WASHINGTON —  said Friday he is not considering pardoning , the former Minneapolis police officer .

"No, I haven't even heard about it,"  said when asked whether he's looking at pardoning Chauvin at the request of his allies. "I haven't heard of that."

Ben Shapiro, founder of the Daily Wire,  calling for Trump to pardon Chauvin, who in 2021 was sentenced for 22 and a half years in prison on state charges for second- and third-degree murder, and 21 years on federal charges for depriving Floyd his civil rights when he knelt on top of Floyd's neck for nine and a half minutes as he lay on a Minneapolis sidewalk in May 2020.

Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, died after being stopped by Chauvin, a white police officer, during a May 25, 2020 traffic stop in Minneapolis as he arrested him for using a counterfeit $20 bill. A teenager's video footage of Floyd struggling to breath beneath Chauvin's knee  in the summer of 2020 and reignited the Black Lives Matter social justice movement.

On his podcast this week, Shapiro argued Chauvin did not receive a fair trail because of the widespread attention to the case including  discussing the case publicly. Shapiro pointed to Floyd's preexisting heart condition, arguing "the evidence demonstrates certainly (Chauvin) was not guilty beyond reasonable doubt" despite both a federal and state jury's verdict otherwise.

[](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/03/14/gene-hackman-dog-how-zinna-died/82427460007/ "This grab from video courtesy of Court TV shows former policeman Derek Chauvin speaking facing the camera as he heard his sentence in the Hennepin County Government Center on June 25, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.")

Top White House adviser Elon Musk quickly embraced the idea, , "Something to think about."

Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, died after being stopped by Chauvin, a white police officer, during a May 25, 2020 traffic stop in Minneapolis as he arrested him for using a counterfeit $20 bill. A teenager's video footage of Floyd struggling to breath beneath Chauvin's knee  in the summer of 2020 and reignited the Black Lives Matter social justice movement.

On his podcast this week, Shapiro argued Chauvin did not receive a fair trail because of the widespread attention to the case including  discussing the case publicly. Shapiro pointed to Floyd's preexisting heart condition, arguing "the evidence demonstrates certainly (Chauvin) was not guilty beyond reasonable doubt" despite both a federal and state jury's verdict otherwise.

Shapiro who attended Trump's joint address to Congress on Tuesday as a guest of Speaker Mike Johnson, said the "the railroading of Derek Chauvin" fueled the 2020 protests that led to property damage in some cities and he contends hurt race relations.

Chauvin is serving his state and federal prison sentences concurrently. Pardoning Chauvin for his federal charges would not change his state conviction.

_Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison._

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