Elon Musk has joined calls for President Trump to pardon ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. A Trump pardon would end Chauvin’s 20-year sentence on federal convictions for violating Floyd’s civil rights, but Trump does not have the power ...
Couldn't he only be pardoned for the federal level conviction and not the state? Looking at his Wikipedia article, he has a 21 year fed sentence and a 22.5 state.
But yeah, this is a way to force violent protests and eventually martial law.
IIRC, Chauvin made the plea deal on federal charges so that he would do his time in the relative safety of a federal prison.
Which would mean that if he gets pardoned on federal charges, then he would have to serve out his remaining state time in a state pen... the very thing he wanted to avoid. He would probably be dead in under a month unless he spent the next decade or more in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day (like he did in his pre-trial detention).