Musk amplifies campaign urging Trump to pardon convicted George Floyd killer Derek Chauvin

A conservative website is calling for President Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, arguing that the former Minneapolis police officer was wrongly convicted of killing George Floyd in a case that galvanized the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and riots.

Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of the Daily Wire, launched a campaign this week urging the president to pardon Chauvin, who was sentenced in June 2021 to 21 years in prison on federal civil-rights charges stemming from Floyd’s death during a May 2020 police stop.

“As you know, this was the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in cities across the United States and set America’s race relations on their worst footing in recent memory,” said Mr. Shapiro in his Tuesday letter to Mr. Trump. “Yet the evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd.”

Taking note of the “Pardon Derek Chauvin” campaign was Elon Musk, a top advisor to Mr. Trump and the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, who replied on X: “Something to think about.”

A presidential pardon on the federal conviction would still leave Chauvin in prison.

The 48-year-old inmate is serving a concurrent 22-1/2-year sentence on Minnesota state charges after a jury found him guilty in April 2021 of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. 

A pardon on the federal charges would likely result in Chauvin being transferred to a state prison in Minnesota from the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring, Texas.

Chauvin was moved last year to the low-security facility after he survived an attack in which he was stabbed 22 times by a former gang leader at the federal prison in Tucson.

Mr. Shapiro, who holds a law degree from Harvard, argued that the 46-year-old Floyd was high on fentanyl; that he had a preexisting heart condition, and that he said he couldn’t breathe even while sitting in his car during his arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit bill.

Chauvin restrained Floyd by kneeling on his upper back for nine minutes, as shown on video taken by a bystander, but the medical examiner’s report showed that Floyd’s trachea was not damaged.

The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled his manner of death a homicide, concluding that Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest” and “complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”

Something to think about https://t.co/KbZQEMpFXP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2025

Mr. Shapiro also said that there was enormous political pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict, including by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who announced a $27 million settlement with the Floyd family during jury selection.

“Under these circumstances, there was no opportunity for blind justice to work, and a man is now rotting in prison because of it,” said the “Free Derek Chauvin” petition.

The campaign drew pushback Thursday from Floyd’s brother Terrence Floyd and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the Chauvin prosecution team.

“I hope Donald Trump has enough humanity to realize that releasing DC would cause untold injury to George Floyd’s family and the many, many people who feel vulnerable because they share experiences like the one that George Floyd experienced,” said Mr. Ellison on CNN.

He said pardoning Chauvin would “set us back as a society.”

Conservative commentator Jason Whitlock said on X he believes Chauvin was wrongly convicted but disagreed with the timing, saying the ensuing outcry could “sabotage and overshadow” the president’s agenda.

Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh countered that “Trump has all the momentum right now, which makes it a perfect time to pardon Chauvin.”

“If Dems react to it by further glorifying and worshiping Fentanyl Floyd, all the better. Let them do it,” he said on X. “That’s a losing proposition for them politically. Also, pardoning Chauvin is just simply the right thing to do. Trump is not the kind of man who refrains from doing the right thing because of how it might look.”

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