Trump Pardons the Husband of a Republican Congressional Ally

Politics|Trump Pardons the Husband of a Republican Congressional Ally

President Trump quietly pardoned the husband of Representative Diana Harshbarger, Republican of Tennessee, last week amid a string of clemency grants to allies.

In 2013, Robert Harshbarger Jr., a licensed pharmacist at the time, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug, in this case kidney medications, some of which came from China, that were not approved for the purpose by the Food and Drug Administration.

Ms. Harshbarger, also a pharmacist, was a corporate officer and agent for American Inhalation Medication Specialists, the company through which her husband sold the drugs, according to corporate records, which show that the company was dissolved in 2018. But during her first successful congressional campaign in 2020, she denied to local media that she had any involvement with the company, after attack ads sought to link her to her husband’s conviction.

Ms. Harshbarger’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

A White House official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that Mr. Harshbarger was not pardoned because of his last name or other affiliations. The official did not respond when asked if Ms. Hashbarger lobbied for the pardon.

The pardon, which was not publicly announced by the White House, was posted on the website of the Justice Department’s office of the pardon attorney on Monday.

It was the latest use of the unfettered presidential clemency power by Mr. Trump to reward allies and make political points, including casting prosecutions of his supporters as corrupt witch hunts.

Others pardons posted by the Justice Department on Monday went to Troy Lake, a diesel mechanic who had pleaded guilty to disabling emissions controls intended to regulate the discharge of harmful pollutants; Michael McMahon, a retired New York police officer who was convicted in relation to his participation in a Chinese government plot to locate, surveil and intimidate a family in the New Jersey suburbs; Darryl Strawberry, the baseball slugger who was convicted of tax evasion in the 1990s; and two Tennessee Republicans — the former House speaker and a former top aide — who had been sentenced weeks earlier on public corruption charges and were scheduled to report to prison later this month.

Ms. Harshbarger was endorsed by Mr. Trump in her 2020 campaign and all of her re-election bids. He praised her as an “unapologetic conservative Trump Republican” in 2021 and, in a post on social media last week, he called her “a very successful Pharmacist and Businesswoman.”

In a 2012 indictment of Mr. Harshbarger, prosecutors claimed that, as a result of his misrepresentations, which occurred between 2004 and 2009, Medicare, Medicaid and other health benefit programs paid more than $845,000 for Chinese drugs that he falsely passed off as an F.D.A.-approved American drug used to replenish iron in patients with chronic kidney disease.

While prosecutors said there were no reports of harm based on the misrepresentations, they indicated that it put patients at risk.

Mr. Harshbarger was sentenced in 2013 to four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $848,000 in restitution, as well as a $25,000 fine and $425,000 in forfeiture.

The White House official said it was an overly harsh sentence for a pharmacist who was trying to help people. The official added that Mr. Harshbarger turned to the drugs in question because of a backlog in the F.D.A.-approved medications and that doctors preferred the drug they received from Mr. Harshbarger because it was easier to administer.

Bureau of Prison records indicate that Mr. Harshbarger was released from custody in June 2017, and that he paid the $425,000 in forfeiture, though there are no records in the court docket indicating whether the fine and forfeiture was paid.

His pharmacy license was revoked after the conviction, according to records accessible on the website of the Tennessee Department of Health. Ms. Harshbarger’s license is still active, according to the records.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.