President Donald Trump personally called Trevor Milton to tell him a pardon was coming. During that call, Trump mentioned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had supported Milton’s case. Shortly after, the pardon was issued, wiping clean a four-year prison sentence and more than $660 million in restitution obligations.
Milton, the founder and former CEO of electric and hydrogen vehicle company Nikola Corporation, had been convicted in October 2022 on three counts of securities and wire fraud. His crime: misleading investors about the state of his company’s technology. The pardon, issued on or around March 27, 2025, was described as “full and unconditional.”
The money trail
Milton and his wife donated between $3.2 million and $3.6 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. They also contributed approximately $750,000 to $1 million to a political action committee linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump told Milton during their phone call that RFK Jr. had backed his case, according to a Reuters investigation. The timing and sequence of events, large donations followed by high-level advocacy followed by a presidential pardon, paints a picture that even the most generous observer would struggle to call coincidental.
