West Palm Beach, Florida – President Donald Trump has pardoned two divers in Florida, convicted of the theft to shorten 19 sharks and the Goliath Grouper, released from the fisherman’s line, which was falsely supposed to be illegal.
May 28 provided full reconciliation to both John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansel, who noticed the long 3 miles from Jupiter’s entrance on August 10, 2020 and pulled it ashore. The show alone costs the owner of the ship around $ 1300, while the value of the lost sharks is several more thousands.
“Whether people believe in his policy or not, he chose to pardon me – someone who deeply cares about the environment and only once wanted to help,” Masel said in a text after his pardon. “I can’t help but feel extremely grateful.”
Defense lawyers Mark Seitles and Ashley Litvin, who helped to secure the pardon of men, said the decision to accuse them anyway was a clear case of exceeding the government.
While the two avoid prison time, pardon means that they are no longer criminals, restore their rights to vote, have a firearm and travel freely abroad.
USA Today turned to the White House for comment.
Why did the sharks cut off?
Moore and Mansel said they thought they did the right thing by confiscating the line and running the sharks stuck from his hooks. The two said this was the reason for calling government officials to report the line and why they clicked pictures as they released the sharks and pulled the gear from the water that were later used against them in court.
Photo of Captain John Moore, Jr. and passengers who land miles on a long line in Jupiter, on August 10, 2020, prosecutors will use this photo and others to chase Moore and his teammate, Taner Mansel, for theft in the federal court.
To whom does the long line belong?
The longness of 3 miles belonged to one of only the five ships in the world, allowed by NOAA to collect sharks of sandboxes for research.
Scott Taylor, the captain of the boat to which the long line called the National Ocean and the Atmosphere belonged and sought a criminal investigation. Federal prosecutors claim that divers knew that the line was legal and somehow sabotaged it to preserve the population of sharks for their commercial interests.
When was the couple convicted?
Moore Jr. and Mansel were found guilty on December 2, 2022, after the jurors discussed three days -longer than the process itself.
US District Judge Donald Middlebruux later condemned the couple to one year probation and ordered them to pay $ 3,345 restitution to Fort Pierce fisherman, whose equipment was destroyed.
Why was their prosecution questioned?
Trump was not the first to question the pursuit of Moore and Mansel. During the hearing in 2024, in the 11th round of the 11th round of the 11th round, the men were charged with a crime.
Judge Barbara Lagoa said that US lawyer’s assistant Tom Watts-Fitzgerald pursues men “for reasons that oppose understanding.” She compared it to inspector Gaverret, the ruthless law of Les Misérables, who has been chasing a man for decades through the theft of a bread.
“Moore and Mansel are criminals because they tried to save sharks from what they consider to be an illegal poaching operation,” Lagoa wrote. “They are the only criminals I have ever met for eighteen years on the bench and three years as a federal prosecutor who called on law enforcement to announce what they see and what actions they take in real time.”
However, the court found that, according to federal law, it was sufficient for divers to deliberately take property, which is not theirs.
“Often in criminal protection is a long way where you feel you are pushing your head into the wall and no one is interested,” Litvin said. “That felt like that.”
This article originally appeared in USA Today: Trump Pardons Florida Divers who cut 19 sharks from a long line