Diver Convicted Of Freeing Sharks Shocked By Trump Pardon | EUROtoday

MIAMI (AP) — A shark-diving constitution boat captain convicted of theft for releasing 19 sharks and an enormous grouper from a fisherman’s longline off the coast of Florida says he’s felt like he was residing in an alternate universe for the previous 5 years. That modified final week when he obtained a presidential pardon.

“This is something I never thought I’d hold,” John Moore Jr. stated Tuesday, as he confirmed off the doc with U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature scrawled throughout the underside.

Moore and crew member Tanner Mansell had been convicted in 2022 of theft of property inside particular maritime jurisdiction. The two males prevented jail time however had been ordered to pay $3,343.72 in restitution. The felony convictions prevented them from voting in Florida, proudly owning firearms or touring freely outdoors the U.S.

Moore stated he and his attorneys had been stunned by the pardon, as a result of they hadn’t petitioned for one.

“We didn’t reach out to the White House,” Moore stated. “We never approached them for a pardon, because that was kind of skipping steps, like we had actually filed the paperwork to take this to the Supreme Court.”

Moore and Mansell noticed the longline about 3 miles (5 kilometers) off the Jupiter Inlet in August 2020, based on courtroom data. Believing it was an unlawful fishing line, the lads freed the sharks and a grouper, reported it to state wildlife officers and introduced the road again to shore.

Federal prosecutors later charged the lads with theft. Officials stated the road belonged to a fisherman licensed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to catch sharks for analysis.

Mansell and Moore had been convicted by a jury, and their appeals had been later denied. The full and unconditional pardons signed by Trump erase these convictions.

“Would I have done something different, now that I know that that was a legal line?” Moore requested. “I was a commercial fisherman. I would never touch a legal line. But now I know more about this, that those things can exist.”