Convicted Massachusetts ex-senator wants Trump to pardon him after Biden pardons son Hunter
A former state senator who was federally convicted of fraud wants President-elect Donald Trump to pardon him in the wake of President Biden pardoning his son Hunter.
Dean Tran, a Massachusetts Republican who ran for Congress, is calling for an “unconditional pardon” a day after Biden signed a pardon for his son.
Tran earlier this year was convicted of pandemic assistance fraud and making false statements on federal tax returns. He was convicted by a federal jury of 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns.
“A full investigation into Senator Tran’s cases and an unconditional pardon is warranted,” Tran posted on Monday, tagging in the post: Fox News, Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump, GOP, Jim Jordan, Pam Bondi, and Donald J. Trump.
Tran quoted a line from Biden’s Sunday statement when he pardoned Hunter — replacing Biden’s son’s name with Tran’s name.
“‘No reasonable person who looks at the facts of’ Senator Tran’s ‘cases can reach any other conclusion than’ Senator Tran ‘was singled out only because he is’ an electable Republican in a deep blue state,” Tran wrote in the post.
Tran served in the Massachusetts State Senate, representing Worcester and Middlesex Counties from 2017 to January 2021.
After Tran’s State Senate term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently received pandemic unemployment benefits while he was also employed as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based retailer of automotive parts (the Automotive Parts Company). While working as a paid consultant, Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits.
Also, Tran concealed $54,700 in consulting income that he received from the Automotive Parts Company from his 2021 federal income tax return. This was in addition to thousands of dollars in income that Tran concealed from the IRS while collecting rent from tenants who rented his Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022.
“Dean Tran defrauded the government out of unemployment benefits he had no right to receive,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said when Tran was convicted. “His fraud and calculated deception diverted money away from those who were struggling to get by during a very difficult time. Our office and our law enforcement partners are committed to holding accountable public officials who lie and steal for personal gain.”
Tran in 2017 became the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature.
His senate district included Fitchburg, Leominster, and several other communities in north central Massachusetts.
Tran lost the State Senate seat in 2020, and he ended up running unsuccessfully for Congress in the 3rd District in 2022.
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The U.S. District Court judge has scheduled his sentencing for this Wednesday.
The charge of wire fraud can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of filing false tax returns can lead to a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $100,000.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.