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A disgraced former Suffolk County District Attorney and his aide, who were both convicted in a high-level corruption scandal, are asking for a pardon from President Trump.
Ex-DA Thomas Spota, 84, and Christopher McPartland, 50, the former head of the prosecutor’s corruption bureau both filed petitions for clemency, according to the database for the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Spota and McPartland were each sentenced to five years in federal prison — though they each served about two — and were both disbarred after they were convicted in 2019 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and acting as accessories to the deprivation of inmate Christopher Loeb’s civil rights.
Loeb was taken into custody and beaten while handcuffed by then-Police Chief James Burke after he stole the cop’s dildo and porn stash from his car in 2012, while Spota and McPartland helped cover it up.
Burke, who is not listed in the petition database, also pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to the beating and served most of his nearly four-year sentence.
Burke was re-arrested in August 2023 after he was accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of a plainclothes park ranger, but the charges are slated to be dropped later this year, if he doesn’t get arrested again.
McPartland, who is now a high-priced consultant for mostly affluent convicts through his self-founded firm, McPartland Federal Prison Strategies, has even taken his plea for clemency to the public, and recently sat down with right-wing influencer Nick Shirley in a video that is not public, according to Newsday.
During the interview, McPartland claimed he and Spota, who was a Democrat during his tenure, were simply casualties of a weaponized Justice Department under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the outlet reported.
“It is a classic, textbook example of weaponization,” McPartland told the TikTokker of he and Spota’s conviction, according to the outlet.
Spota has since quietly rebranded as a clerk for a Long Island law firm.
The pardon applications now sit with the Office of the Pardon Attorney — a unit under the Department of Justice created in 1894, which vets clemency requests and passes its recommendations for pardons up to the president.
The office reviewed about 12,000 clemency petitions between 2022 and 2024, according to its website.
Trump has issued clemency to roughly 1,700 people since starting his second term.
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