Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission
Three years ago on Christmas of 2020, President Trump pardoned Gary Brugman who was punished for protecting his country.
The local Texas Tribune reported on the pardon.
President Donald J. Trump announced 26 new pardons Wednesday, including one for Gary Brugman, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent who was sent to prison for nearly two years for violating the civil rights of a man attempting to cross the U.S. border into Texas.
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and a slate of Republican congressional members were among the public figures who supported Brugman’s clemency, according to a statement from the White House press secretary.
Brugman’s case drew national attention among conservative figures who hailed him for working to secure the U.S. border. Court documents show that in January 2001, Brugman and a partner responded to a sensor alert in a pecan orchard near the border, where they spotted “a group of approximately ten individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally.”
Brugman chased them on foot after they attempted to run. After another officer caught up with the group, he ordered the men to sit on the floor…
…Brugman was convicted in 2002 and spent more than two years in a federal prison. He’s repeatedly defended his actions and said not all of the men captured were cooperating.
“I ran up to the aliens and with the bottom of my foot I pushed the first alien to the ground … and told him to sit down as I said ‘sientense,’” Brugman wrote in a blog about his encounter, according to Fox News. “I then turned to a second alien and pushed him to the ground too.”
Brugman served in the Coast Guard for eight years and as a Border Patrol agent for four, the release from the White House said.
President Trump protected Americans.
Here is a video of Mr. Brugman receiving the news.
