U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned Michele Fiore, a Nevada Republican politician awaiting sentencing on federal charges for diverting funds intended for a statue honoring a slain police officer to cover personal expenses, including plastic surgery.
Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who unsuccessfully ran for state treasurer in 2022, was convicted in October on six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She had been released ahead of her sentencing, set for next month.
In a lengthy Facebook statement on Thursday, the staunch Trump supporter thanked the president while accusing the U.S. government and certain media outlets of a decade-long conspiracy to “target and dismantle” her life.
The White House confirmed Fiore had been pardoned but did not comment on the president’s decision.
The pardon, issued Wednesday, came less than a week after Fiore lost a bid for a new trial. She had been facing the possibility of decades in prison.
Federal prosecutors said during the trial that Fiore, 54, had raised more than $70,000 for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer who was fatally shot in 2014 in the line of duty but had instead spent some of it on cosmetic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding.
“Michele Fiore used a tragedy to line her pockets,” federal prosecutor Dahoud Askar said.
FBI agents subpoenaed records and searched Fiore’s home in Las Vegas in 2021 in connection with her campaign spending.
In a statement, Nevada Democratic Party Executive Director Hilary Barrett called the pardon “reckless” and a “slap in the face” to law enforcement officers.
Fiore, who does not have a law degree, was appointed as a judge in deep-red Nye County in 2022 shortly after she lost her campaign for state treasurer.
She was elected last June to complete the unexpired term of a judge who died but had been suspended without pay amid her legal troubles. Pahrump is an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.
In her statement Thursday, Fiore also said she plans to return to the bench next week.
Nye County said it is awaiting an update on Fiore’s current suspension from the state Commission on Judicial Discipline, which told The Associated Press in an email that it was aware Fiore had been pardoned but had no further comment on her situation.
The AP also sent an email seeking comment from Fiore’s lawyer.
Fiore served in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016. She was a Las Vegas councilwoman from 2017 to 2022.
While serving as a state lawmaker, Fiore gained national attention for her support of rancher Cliven Bundy and his family during armed standoffs between militiamen and federal law enforcement officers in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014 and Malheur, Oregon, in 2016.
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