WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump has pardoned a U.S. Army lieutenant who was convicted during the Biden administration for resisting the U.S. military’s COVID-19 protocols.
1st Lieutenant Mark Bashaw – who chose not to submit to the Army’s demand that he take the untested COVID-19 “vaccine,” refused to wear a mask indoors at the base, and rejected twice-weekly COVID-19 testing – was discharged following his military court martial.
Bashaw was serving as an entomologist at the Army Public Health Center in Aberdeen, Maryland, at the time.
In an X post in December 2023, he explained that he was convicted “because I refused to participate with lies.”
On Wednesday, President Trump issued a slew of pardons for those who had been unfairly targeted by the previous administration, including Bashaw.
“I just received a Presidential Pardon from President Donald J. Trump,” wrote Bashaw on X. “I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation.”
Bashaw then thanked several people by name, and “ALL the Reprimandos [COVID-19 Reprimanded Ranks] /Patriots who took a stand against tyranny, and most importantly Jesus Christ Almighty! Glory to God.”
“Time for accountability!” he declared.
🇺🇸 I just received a Presidential Pardon from President Donald J. Trump. I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation.
Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump and to your incredible team, WRWY🙏
Special shout out to… pic.twitter.com/wxiM3u1YF6
— Mark Charles Bashaw (@MCBashaw) May 29, 2025
Bashaw included a video clip in his X post from April 28, 2022, made before heading to his court martial later that day, in which he prayed that the Constitution would be upheld.
Thanks to President Trump’s pardon, Bashaw’s criminal record has been wiped out.
In 2021, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated the COVID-19 shot for all military personnel. As a result, over 8,700 individuals were ousted from military service.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) to reinstate servicemen and women who had been forced during the Biden administration to leave military service after their requests for exemptions from the untested COVID-19 jab had been denied.
Those who were discharged “solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine” are to be “reinstated under this section to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation,” explained the EO. “The vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members.”
“Further, the military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our Nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received,” continued the EO, adding, “Federal Government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue.”
