‘He’s Not Getting Out’: Minnesota AG Slams Outrageous Push for Donald Trump to Free Derek Chauvin, Former Cop Who Murdered George Floyd
With Donald Trump back in the White House, some on the right have seized upon the moment to throw their support behind a nascent movement to pardon Derek Chauvin, the disgraced ex-cop convicted in the 2020 choking death of George Floyd.
Chauvin, 49, is currently serving concurrent state and federal prison sentences for kneeling on Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted by a 12-member jury on state charges for unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He later pleaded guilty to depriving Floyd of his rights in the federal civil rights case.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison noted that efforts to petition President Trump for a federal pardon are irrelevant to the conviction secured by the state, where Chauvin “still owes Minnesota 22-1/2 years,” the state’s top prosecutor told MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” on Sunday.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for the state charges in April 2021 and 21 years in federal prison for the civil rights conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal of the state verdict in 2023.
Since then, Chauvin’s cause has been picked up by Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro. On March 4, Shapiro launched an online peitition to secure a federal pardon for Chauvin. Tech billionaire Elon Musk shared a clip from Shapiro’s podcast that day and wrote, “Something to think about.”
The petition now has more than 50,000 signatures, though even some regular Daily Wire followers weren’t swayed.
“Kneeling on a guy’s neck for 10 minutes is very weak grounds for a pardon,” wrote one, on X. “I can’t support this cause.”
In his letter to Trump, Shapiro called Chauvin’s “unjust conviction “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. Yet the evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd.”
Shapiro has long denied the existence of systemic racism.
Jurors saw it differently. Interviewed after the trial, many referred to the video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
“The camera doesn’t lie,” said juror Belton Hardeman. “And it was in slow motion at times while you were sitting there in court… So it was hard. It played a huge role, though. It truly did.”
There was little dispute over the verdict, even from the right, until recently. Supporters of a pardon for Chauvin now argue he did not receive a fair trial due to the attention surrounding the Floyd case and the national protests that accompanied it.
Ellison has his theories. “I think they’re pushing for it because they want to agitate and outrage people,” Ellison told MSNBC about the pardon efforts. “I don’t know if Trump is going to pardon Chauvin or not, but if he does, it doesn’t change his prison sentence. He still owes Minnesota 22 ½ years, and he’s going to do it either in Minnesota or somewhere.”
Trump has not said whether he is considering a pardon for Chauvin.
Ellison said Sunday that other motivations for a potential pardon could include a desire to show unwavering support for police officers. Or maybe the likes of Shapiro and Musk just want to “provoke people,” he said.
“In no case is it sensible and good for America,” Ellison said.