To hear Michele Fiore tell it, the good Lord and President Donald Trump are in her corner.

The Almighty answered her prayers after she bilked a fallen police officer’s memorial fund, and Trump handled the paperwork. He pardoned her in April following her 2024 conviction on six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.

Since then, Fiore has appeared on a radio talk show, but the self-styled “Lady Trump” has otherwise kept a relatively low profile. She did remind skeptics that she was the victim of a “made-up case” that was politically motivated. She told a KLAS-TV reporter on May 23, “It was a fake case and the government knew it.” 

She was investigated by the FBI, indicted by a federal grand jury and represented during a weeklong trial by competent counsel. She was tried by a judge and convicted by a jury. Dozens of witnesses testified against her, including Gov. Joe Lombardo. The former Clark County sheriff contributed $5,000 to a fund he believed would be used to construct a statue honoring Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer Alyn Beck, who, in 2014, was murdered in the line of duty along with his partner Igor Soldo.

Instead, the prosecution showed, during six months in 2019 and 2020 then-Las Vegas City Councilwoman Fiore used $70,000 of the memorial construction donations for personal use that included paying for rent, plastic surgery and her daughter’s wedding. At trial, an FBI agent testified that Lombardo’s $5,000 intended contribution was transferred into a Fiore family member’s account and ended up being used for rent.

Convicted Oct. 3, Fiore faced as many as two decades in prison for each count. At the time, Department of Justice Public Integrity Section trial attorney Dahoud Askar said Fiore “used a tragedy to line her pockets.” Fellow prosecutor Alexander Gottfried reminded jurors, “She never cared about Officer Beck’s memory or his sacrifice.”

This past week, I spoke with a retired Metro officer who knows the Beck and Soldo families. He puts it a touch more bluntly.

“She stole from murdered police officers,” he says. “She is a piece of garbage.”

But forget all the pesky facts. Lady Trump received a pardon from her hero in the White House. She was pugnaciously outspoken in her support of Trump and wrapped herself in the Stop the Steal and anti-COVID vaccine deceptions. She was such a Trump acolyte on the 2022 campaign trail that she nearly pulled off the steal of her career in the race for state treasurer, losing by just 1.7 percent of the vote to incumbent Zach Conine.

It's hard to imagine that her criminal case surprised anyone who has followed Fiore’s reckless career. Denying the undeniable appears to be her superpower. But neither her conviction or pardon are news as the Nye County Justice of the Peace awaits the outcome of her interim suspension with pay by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Fiore’s controversies have been buried deep by the latest slate of criminals to receive pardons or sentence commutations from Trump. It’s another in a continuing series of efforts to tar the rule of law, sow distrust for the justice system and diminish the importance of political corruption prosecution — all while he continues to game the courts at the highest level.

Although convicted fraudsters and former reality TV personalities Julie and Todd Chrisley have received much of the press attention, hall-of-fame street drug kingpins and gang bosses Michael Ray Harris and Larry Hoover are bound to raise eyebrows among law enforcement in Los Angeles and Chicago.

The latest list is riddled with convicted drug traffickers. What message that sends to Trump’s MAGA true believers is anyone’s guess. All I know is Hunter Biden will end up being responsible for it.

Others will find former political titans on the list, now forgiven for their bribery-solicitation, fraud and self-dealing. A less well-known name is that of former Arkansas state Sen. Jeremy Young Hutchinson (R), who sucked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes before his 2023 conviction. He is the nephew of former Arkansas Gov. and ex-DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson.

For intrigue, it’s hard to beat Trump donor Imaad Shah Zuberi and Florida Ponzi scheme queen Marian Morgan. The competition is steep, but one of my personal favorites is former nursing home executive Paul Walczak, who received clemency after his mother, Republican fund-raiser Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million-per-person Trump fundraiser.

That’s understandable. Loyalty is almost as important as money to the American Don, and the rule of law be damned. Compared to the recent slate of grifters and gangsters that the boss is setting free, Lady Trump is a pussy cat.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.