(The Center Square) – After a Trump administration settlement with the IRS was announced including a new $1.8 billion weaponization fund for “political prisoners,” Texans are renewing their call for the president to pardon Texas-based Republican political consultant Michael Shirley.
The Department of Justice on Monday announced a settlement had been reached in the $10 billion lawsuit President Donald Trump, his sons, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, LLC, filed against the U.S. Treasury Department and IRS. It was filed after the Biden administration leaked Trump tax returns and raided Mar-a-Lago. These and other actions, the Trumps maintain, are examples of the Biden administration weaponizing the DOJ against political opponents.
As part of the settlement, an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was established to provide a process to hear and redress claims of those “who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
Trump’s DOJ and members of Congress have been investigating Biden-era weaponization claims. Within Trump’s first year in office, former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted twice. The first was for his alleged role in the now confirmed Russia-collusion hoax. The second was after he published a social media post appearing to call for Trump’s assassination. Comey denies the charges and maintains that Trump and his supporters are criminals. He told CBS News the new fund is “crazy” and “we can’t set up a multi-million-dollar ATM at Mar-a-Lago for people who’ve committed crimes.”
Austin, Texas-based political consultant Andy Hogue, who’s been calling for Shirley’s release, disagrees.
“While $1.8 billion is a tremendous step toward helping the lawfare victims of the Biden regime, releasing many of those same victims behind bars or who are still going through the federal courts system would cost the taxpayers virtually nothing,” Hogue told The Center Square. “More pardons equal more justice, especially for those whose losses cannot be given a dollar amount.”
It’s unclear how many were targeted but U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at least 92 Republican organizations and individuals were as part of the Biden administration’s “sweeping Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump.” He released a Senate Judiciary Committee report citing examples prompting Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to launch an investigation. He said subpoenas would be issued “to former Biden officials who engaged in malicious, politically motivated witch hunts targeting conservative individuals and organizations.”
One case for Texas Republicans say Uthmeier should investigate is that of Florida native Mike Shirley’s.
Republican county and state Senate district conventions recently passed a resolution in support of freeing Shirley and other “Biden political prisoners.” The goal is to incorporate it into the Republican Party of Texas platform at its convention next month, Hogue said.
But more importantly, he and others argue, is Shirley must be pardoned and released.
Shirley is currently incarcerated at a minimum-security prison camp in Miami after he was indicted in 2022, convicted in July 2023 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Biden DOJ prosecutors initially accused Shirley of bribing former Seminole County, Fla., tax collector Joel Greenberg, but charged him with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. His defense pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which justices warned prosecutors might abuse the honest services statute, especially through erroneous jury instructions.
This is what happened in Shirley’s case, his attorney argues: jury instructions were changed, and one juror was replaced. The judge refused to declare a mistrial.
Biden DOJ officials attempted to pressure Shirley to “revive the discredited Russia hoax against Donald Trump; falsely claim the 2018 Florida recounts – which elected Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott – were stolen; falsely confess to the existence of an illegal GOP fundraising operations to impede the 2024 elections,” Hogue told The Center Square.
“What happened to me is not just wrong, it was evil,” Shirley told The Center Square in an email. “My liberty was stripped because I wouldn’t play my part in the Biden DOJ’s grand scheme to prevent a second Trump presidency and a Republican takeover of Congress. The Left always screams of tyranny if Trump was elected, but I witnessed true tyranny first-hand under Biden. The ultimatum given to me: prison or parrot their lies. They needed my help smearing their opponents, no matter how far-fetched the source material was.
“I stood my ground against their election interference lies when the Democrats controlled everything. But no one came to save me. Now, even with the Republicans in full power, I sit behind bars as a forgotten political prisoner – as if this were a third-world country. It’s well-past time to take action for all Americans who are falsely accused, no matter where they may be.”
In his first week in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people, including Biden DOJ “weaponization” victims. He’s since pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 100. He purportedly plans to pardon another 250 coinciding with July 4 celebrations.
