Five people ask Trump to reexamine Biden's rejection of their requests for a pardon

Five people, including former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, asked President Donald Trump on Monday to reexamine former President Joe Biden's rejection of their request for a pardon, citing concerns about his mental sharpness while in office.

Former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Cohen, rabbi and former venture capitalist Michael Rothenberg, cardiologist Michael Jones and radio host Warren Ballentine have all been convicted of nonviolent federal crimes since 2013, and asked Biden for a pardon but were denied. 

The group is now asking Trump to examine the rejection because of concerns about Biden's mental acuity, which has come back into the news after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer last month, and a book was released on the Biden White House's alleged cover-up of his declining mental fitness.

“Biden’s pardons of close associates and family members raised serious ethical and legal concerns, particularly when others in similar situations were denied pardons,” the five wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. “The issue at hand was not about his legal right to grant pardons, but whether his cognitive condition affected the integrity of such decisions. 

“This is particularly noteworthy since Biden used the full Nixon-era formula in granting ‘full, complete, absolute and unconditional’ pardons to members of his family, covering a lengthy period of time and without citing any specific alleged wrongdoing on their part," they added. 

Jackson pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud his reelection campaign of roughly $750,000 in 2013, Ballentine was convicted of fraud in 2013, Jones was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in 2017, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal tax crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in 2018 and Rothenberg was convicted of multiple fraud and money laundering charges in 2023, per The Hill.

The requests also come after Trump went on a pardoning spree last week, where he pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, former New York GOP Rep. Michael Grimm and commuted the sentence of former Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.