Feb. 13 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump has pardoned five former professional football players convicted on a range of crimes from perjury, drug trafficking and counterfeiting U.S. currency.
Alice Marie Johnson, often called Trump's "pardon czar," announced on X late Thursday that the president had granted pardons to Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and Billy Cannon, who died in 2018.
"As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace and the courage to rise again. So is our nation," Johnson said in a statement on X.
No formal justification for the surprise pardons was provided.
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