Pardons given to 147, but not Jerry DeLemus, former co-chair of NH Vets for Trump

President Trump with Jerry and Sue DeLemus during 2015 campaign event in Rochester.

ROCHESTER - An emotional State Rep. Sue Delemus of Rochester fought back tears this morning as she realized that her husband, Jerry DeLemus, who was sentenced in a 2014 armed standoff in Nevada, was not among 143 pardoned by President Trump on his last day in office.

"I'm having a hard time not curling into a ball," she said as she choked up during a telephone interview with The Rochester Voice.

She said President Trump had been well aware of the pardon request, which was been backed by several New Hampshire lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Sherm Packard, New Hampshire GOP Chair Steve Stepanek and State Rep. Al Baldasaro, who was a former co-chair with Jerry DeLemus of New Hampshire Veterans for Trump during the early days of Trump's first presidential run in 2015.

Former Congressmen, rappers, extortionists, money launderers and drug dealers were among those pardoned.

DeLemus pleaded guilty in August 2016 to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and to interstate travel in aid of extortion, according to federal court records. He was sentenced to six additional years in prison after serving more than a year prior to the plea deal being struck.

Several other defendants in the Nevada standoof, including ranch owner Cliven Bundy, were freed in 2018 after the case against them was dismissed with prejudice, which means it cannot be retried.

In her ruling dismissing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro said federal prosecutors acted recklessly and engaged in a "deliberate attempt to mislead and distort the truth" by failing to turn over evidence that could have helped exonerate the four defendants.

Navarro ended the case against Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy and militia member Ryan Payne "with prejudice," meaning they cannot be retried on charges related to the 2014 armed standoff near Bundy's ranch in Bunkerville, Nev.

"The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated," Navarro said. "The government conduct in this case was, indeed, outrageous."

Following Navarro's ruling, supporters of DeLemus stepped up their effort to have the Marine veteran released. He was moved from a prison in Nevada to a prison at Fort Devens in Massachusetts in 2017.

Today, Sue DeLemus noted that she'd hoped Navarro's rebuke of proseuctors' misconduct in the case would have spurred Trump to pardon her husband.

Jerry DeLemus, a longtime Tea Party activist, has maintained all along he went to Nevada to defuse the situation, not escalate it.

DeLemus was originally named in a March 2016 indictment as a midlevel leader and organizer of the Bundy standoff, who, among other things: recruited, organized, trained and provided logistical support to gunmen and other followers and organized and led armed patrols and security checkpoints from April 12 till the end of May 2014 on and about the disputed grazing lands and Bundy ranch in southeastern Nevada.

He was arrested on March 3, 2016, as several FBI vehicles full of armed agents in full tactical gear with weapons drawn swarmed his Rochester condo.

Sue DeLemus said today her husband will now likely remain in jail at Fort Devens in Massachusetts for another year and four months.

The Bundy standoff was an armed confrontation between protesters and law enforcement that developed from a 20-year legal dispute between the Bureau of Land Management and Nevada cattle rancher Bundy over grazing rights on federal land in southeastern Nevada.

Some 19 suspects were indicted in the standoff.

DeLemus was the first to strike a plea deal, leading many to question why he remains in prison while the leaders of the standoff have seen their cases dismissed.