Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, October 23, 2026
Courthouse News Service
Friday, October 23, 2026 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Pardoning only goes so far

NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished opinion, the Fifth Circuit held that a former convict, who former President Donald Trump had pardoned after he was convicted for conspiracy to make a false statement to the Department of Agriculture, could not have his conviction expunged or sealed. He could identify neither a statutory basis for expungement, nor a rights violation that the denial caused him.

Read the ruling here.

Categories / Appeals, Briefs, Civil Rights, Criminal

Subscribe to our free newsletters

Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.