{"id":2615543,"date":"2026-06-18T09:25:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-should-pardon-4-cops-politically-persecuted-by-obamas-doj\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T09:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:31:06","slug":"trump-should-pardon-4-cops-politically-persecuted-by-obamas-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-should-pardon-4-cops-politically-persecuted-by-obamas-doj\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Should Pardon Cops Persecuted By Obama&#8217;s DOJ"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-should-pardon-4-cops-politically-persecuted-by-obamas-doj%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2615543&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article advocates for President Trump to issue pardons to four former East Haven, Connecticut police officers-John Miller, David Cari, Dennis Spaulding, and Jason zullo-who where unjustly convicted by the Obama Justice Department for their actions while pursuing a fraud involving illegal immigrants and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sanctuary-state-nj-illegal-alien-accused-of-luring-13-year-old-girl\/\" title=\"Sanctuary State NJ: Illegal Alien Accused of Luring 13...Year...Old Girl\">fake license plates<\/a>. Despite being cleared of racial bias by multiple investigations, these officers faced federal charges driven by political motives, with the Obama-era DOJ treating them as villains to promote a broader immigration agenda. The author emphasizes that these convictions were the result of weaponized prosecutions targeting dedicated public servants, not genuine justice. A presidential pardon would serve to rectify this miscarriage of justice, restore the officers&#8217; reputations, and reaffirm principles of law and fairness amid the backdrop of America&#8217;s 250th anniversary.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In a few weeks, President Trump plans to issue 250 pardons to mark America\u2019s 250th birthday. Four names belong near the top of that list: John Miller, David Cari, Dennis Spaulding, and Jason Zullo, all former East Haven, Connecticut, police officers whom the Obama Justice Department turned into federal felons for simply doing their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, I have never had any discussion with these men, their families, or their agents. They are not my clients. No one has paid me a dime. I don\u2019t do paid pardon work. Like my <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/17\/trump-should-pardon-d-c-s-good-cops-victimized-by-bidens-soft-on-crime-doj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous op-ed successfully calling for President Trump\u2019s pardons<\/a> of Washington, D.C., police officers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/executive-grant-of-clemency-for-terence-sutton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Terence Sutton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/executive-grant-of-clemency-for-andrew-zabavsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Andrew Zabavsky<\/a>, I am simply calling for a righting of wrongs by the woke and weaponized Obama and Biden Justice Departments.<\/p>\n<p>Presidential pardons in these cases would not be an act of indulgence, but an act of presidential correction. These men were line officers, family men, and decorated public servants. They got entangled in a fake civil-rights charade after they uncovered a sprawling and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >dangerous fraud providing unlicensed illegal immigrants<\/a> with fake license plates and tags.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of prosecuting the fraud ring with equal zeal, the ideologues at the Obama Justice Department went after the cops who were simply doing their jobs. To <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-the-bad-faith-debate-over-cancel-culture\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: The Bad Faith Debate Over \u2018Cancel Culture\u2019\">score political points<\/a>, they jailed cops, not criminals. It was wrong, and only President Trump can right it.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Facts<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The facts are simple. East Haven officers found that more than 1,000 vehicles operated with fraudulent out-of-state plates, many connected to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/feb\/16\/east-haven-four-deserve-presidential-pardon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pennsylvania scheme<\/a> that sold plates to illegal immigrants for roughly $1,500 apiece. <\/p>\n<p>When officers seized roughly 80 suspicious plates from a local bodega in 2010, an immigrant-rights activist and priest arrived with a video camera and interfered with the investigation. The activists, Ivy League lawyers, and the Obama Justice Department descended on East Haven, a sleepy town of 30,000 people neighboring the crime-ridden, dilapidated home of Yale University.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations by the police department\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/connecticut\/easthaven\/east-haven-cop-dennis-spaulding-cleared-of-racial-profiling-charge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">internal affairs division<\/a>, the state of Connecticut, and the FBI followed. Each independently cleared the officers of racial bias charges. That was no matter to Obama\u2019s DOJ, which wanted to make an example of officers it accused of targeting so-called \u201cinnocent\u201d illegal immigrants as it pushed for <a href=\"https:\/\/obamawhitehouse.archives.gov\/realitycheck\/the-press-office\/remarks-president-comprehensive-immigration-reform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mass amnesty<\/a> in Congress.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Obama DOJ Pursues Charges of Racial Bias<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Obama\u2019s handpicked head of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division, Tom Perez, treated the criminals like victims and the cops like criminals. Despite the FBI\u2019s investigation <a href=\"https:\/\/lawenforcementtoday.com\/how-the-obama-doj-destroyed-four-decorated-officers-for-enforcing-immigration-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">failing to substantiate<\/a> DOJ\u2019s allegations of racial animus, Perez pursued the case anyway.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, the FBI reportedly sent an undercover unit with \u201cHispanic-looking\u201d agents driving around trying to provoke officers into pulling them over. Following all traffic laws and displaying legal tags, the agents were never stopped despite weeks of surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Perez <a href=\"https:\/\/www.policedefense.org\/jason-zullo-john-miller-david-cari-dennis-spaulding-east-haven-ct-police-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wanted<\/a> a federal consent decree over the police department to impose sanctuary-city policies. When the town resisted, the Obama Justice Department brought the hammer down. It singled out four officers for supposed civil-rights transgressions.<\/p>\n<p>The officers\u2019 offenses were minor; the convictions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/former-conn-cop-sentenced-to-five-years-for-violating-latinos-civil-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sentences were not<\/a>. Sgt. Miller poked an unruly, intoxicated suspect in the chest. The government and probation office sought probation; the court still sentenced him to <a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/connecticut\/easthaven\/exeast-haven-police-officer-miller-sentenced-to-four-months\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">four months in prison.<\/a> Officer Zullo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-ct\/pr\/east-haven-police-officer-sentenced-prison-obstructing-justice-cover-civil-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">omitted<\/a> from a report that his cruiser touched a suspect\u2019s motorcycle during a chase. He served two years. Officer Cari, a decorated officer who had been wounded on duty, received 30 months for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iowa-dems-senate-campaign-implodes-over-her-hiring-of-illegal-alien-with-a-rap-sheet-for-top-school-job\/\" title=\"Iowa Dem&#039;s Senate Campaign Implodes Over Her Hiring of Illegal Alien with a Rap Sheet for Top School Job\">charges including making<\/a> an arrest without probable cause and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-ct\/pr\/former-east-haven-police-officer-sentenced-30-months-federal-prison-civil-rights-offenses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">making a false arrest report<\/a>. Officer Spaulding, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-ct\/pr\/former-east-haven-police-officer-sentenced-five-years-prison-criminal-civil-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">convicted<\/a> of the same charges and one count of excessive force, was sentenced to five years. The verdict came down only two days after his daughter was born. He missed the first years of her life while behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>While the officers\u2019 lives were upended, Perez\u2019s political star kept rising. He became Obama\u2019s secretary of labor, then chairman of the Democratic National Committee during President Trump\u2019s first term. Then he became one of Biden\u2019s top advisors on \u2014\u00a0 you guessed it \u2014\u00a0 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-accuse-biden-of-playing-political-game-over-border-crisis\/\" title=\"House Republicans Accuse Biden of Playing \u2018Political Game\u2019 Over Border Crisis\">illegal immigration crisis<\/a> he had been abetting from the White House.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Weaponized Prosecutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Perez\u2019s actions were a vindictive act of political weaponization against his ideological enemies and ruined the lives of four family men dedicated to protecting their community. No one is above the law, but so-called \u201cprogressive\u201d and leftist radicals like Perez bent the law to fit their agenda, not justice.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump knows all too well how partisan enemies have weaponized prosecutions for political ends. It must stop, and its victims must be vindicated. President Trump has the power, with the stroke of a pen, to rectify this gross miscarriage of justice and uphold the rule of law.<\/p>\n<p>A pardon cannot undo all the harm wrought by this political persecution, but it can redeem these men in the eyes of the law, correct the record, and restore their good names. Even more, a pardon for the East Haven Four would be a fitting declaration on the 250th anniversary of our founding: that our nation holds law, order, liberty, and justice sacrosanct to this day.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump to pardon 4 East Haven officers wrongly convicted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1587,"featured_media":2615544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2819669967_344944e289_k-e1781560413354.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5676,4901,81368,51796,3634],"class_list":["post-2615543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-cops","tag-justice","tag-obama-doj","tag-pardon-2","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2819669967_344944e289_k-e1781560413354.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615543"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615547,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615543\/revisions\/2615547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2615544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}