Trump pardons former Indiana congressman convicted of insider trading

President Trump on Friday granted a full, unconditional pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison after his conviction for insider trading while working as a lobbyist and consultant.

The pardon, announced late Friday through the White House and shared by Trump on Truth Social, came after more than 40 former House Republicans signed a letter calling Buyer's prosecution politically motivated — the latest in a series of clemency grants to Republican allies since Trump returned to office.

Buyer, 67, was convicted of using inside information to execute illegal stock trades while serving as a consultant and lobbyist after leaving office. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 and ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 in illegal gains and pay a $10,000 fine, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said Buyer traded on nonpublic information tied to the $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, as well as trades in Navigant Consulting shares when Guidehouse was preparing to acquire it. Buyer was released in 2025, and the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in May without comment.

In announcing the pardon, Trump cited Buyer's service as a judge advocate general in the Army and his time in the House, calling his career "distinguished and highly productive," ABC7 Los Angeles reported. The White House made the announcement late Friday, and Trump shared news of the pardon on Truth Social.

Five current House Republicans — Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Ken Calvert of California, Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Pete Sessions of Texas — separately signed letters supporting the pardon. More than 40 former Republican members also wrote to Trump, arguing Buyer had been "targeted by the deep state." "Like you, Mr. President, Steve has been the victim of lawfare conducted by the Biden Administration," the former members wrote in an April 2025 letter, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

Buyer welcomed the decision, saying the pardon "corrects a politically motivated prosecution" and calling it "horrific to be imprisoned for a crime that I did not commit."

Buyer, who left Congress in 2011, previously served as a House prosecutor during the 1998 presidential impeachment proceedings and later joined Trump's 2016 presidential transition team, where he focused on veterans' issues.