The pardon is about ‘every American who has been railroaded by the government,’ he said.
Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle (EV) maker Nikola Corp., who was sentenced to a four-year prison term, said he received a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Milton said he was issued “a full and unconditional pardon,” according to a March 28 post on social media platform X.
Today I was issued a full and unconditional pardon by @realDonaldTrump himself. He called me personally to tell me.
— Trevor Milton (@nikolatrevor) March 28, 2025
This pardon is not just about me—it’s about every American who has been railroaded by the government, and unfortunately, that’s a lot of people. It is no wonder… pic.twitter.com/qpT0jjI6Fy
“[The president] called me personally to tell me,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s website does not list any clemency granted by Trump to an individual named Trevor Milton. The last presidential pardon was issued on March 26 for Devon Archer.
In 2020, the hype around Nikola was immense. The entity was valued at $30 billion, exceeding Ford’s market capitalization.
However, Milton resigned that year following reports of fraud, which sent Nikola’s shares crashing. Reports questioned his claims that the company had succeeded in producing 18-wheel, zero-emission trucks.
During the trial accusing him of fraud, prosecutors said a prototype truck shown in a company video was actually a nonfunctioning vehicle that was rolled down a hill.
Prosecutors accused Milton of being untruthful regarding the revolutionary truck, saying it was only a General Motors vehicle stamped with Nikola’s logo.
The company’s CEO also testified in court that Milton was “prone to exaggeration” when presenting the business to investors.
Milton was sentenced to a prison term of four years in December 2023 “for engaging in securities and wire fraud in connection with his scheme to defraud and mislead investors about the development of products and technology by the company he founded,” according to a Dec. 18, 2023, statement from the Justice Department. This was during the tenure of Attorney General Merrick Garland.
It said that between November 2019 and September 2020, Milton promoted Nikola shares by making “false and misleading statements” about the company’s products.
According to the department, Milton lied about creating a “fully functioning” semi-truck prototype called Nikola One despite knowing that it was inoperable. He also made false claims that the company engineered an electric and hydrogen-powered pickup truck even though he “knew that was not true,” it alleged.
