Marjorie Taylor Greene just found out more about the company President Donald Trump keeps, and this time she wasn’t disappointed or even alarmed — she was simply disgusted. This comes after Trump’s pardon of Joseph Schwartz made its way back into the news cycle.
This is all unfolding in the immediate aftermath of Trump launching a task force with the sole purpose of eliminating fraud in the U.S. Even when he first made the announcement, multiple critics questioned how he could do that in good conscience after spending the past year pardoning individuals with fraud and tax evasion charges.
Schwartz, 65, was one such figure. He was the former owner and operator of Skyline Healthcare, a nursing home chain with facilities across 11 states, including New Jersey and Arkansas. In total, Schwartz oversaw 100 facilities. The business soon faced allegations of unpaid bills, patient neglect, and financial mismanagement. It didn’t take long before the company collapsed.
That was just the beginning of Schwartz’s problems. He was later indicted and pleaded guilty to wilfully failing to pay more than $38 million in employment taxes between Oct. 2017 and May 2018. He also failed to file a required annual report for employees’ 401(k) plans. Court filings revealed that while his employees languished and patients were neglected, Schwartz paid himself $5 million as a “ghost employee.” He was ultimately sentenced to 36 months behind bars, followed by an additional 12 months in Arkansas for Medicaid fraud.
Schwartz was sentenced on Apr. 17, 2025. And that only covers the criminal side. Reportedly, at least three families secured multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgments against him. However, he has paid nothing to the victims, as his assets were depleted following the collapse of his empire — a detail that would later become relevant.
Despite all this, Trump pardoned Schwartz just three months before launching his fraud elimination task force. The White House claimed Schwartz had used a third-party entity for tax filings, insisted no funds were used for personal enrichment, and even suggested he had paid restitution. There was, notably, no acknowledgment of the “ghost employee” allegations or the wrongful death judgments.
Greene has had longstanding issues with Trump, and in all likelihood, she’s looking for reasons to justify to herself and her supporters why she had to leave MAGA. But this isn’t a lie. At best, Trump is using his power in a way that undermines equal justice. At worst, it reinforces the idea that anyone who praises him — and can lobby his aides with enough money — can get their way. There’s no other word for it except corruption.
This guy stole $39 million from elderly people and their families and then bought a pardon for nearly $1 million.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 30, 2026
So gross and corrupt. https://t.co/pkWIBOpgBh
Trump’s clemency record may feel like a small story now, but over time, a pattern begins to emerge. Whether these are political trade-offs or even something as blunt as a quid pro quo — with allegations of $1 million for a pardon — the through line is hard to ignore: when it comes to fraud, Trump’s actions speak louder than any task force ever could.
The actual victims of Schwartz are still uncompensated. Greene is ultimately right — the days of “America First” have fully left the station in MAGA world. Right now, MAGA is all about protecting Trump’s interests and — to put it mildly — the people who can afford to stay in his orbit.
Published: Apr 1, 2026 07:12 am