SCRAMBLE: Gov Tim Walz defends vote to pardon convicted sex offender

SCRAMBLE: Gov Tim Walz defends vote to pardon convicted sex offender

From Garage Logic by Gamut Podcast Network

July 17, 2026 · 34 min · Episode 2853

About this episode

Gov. Tim Walz defends his decision to pardon a convicted sex offender amidst controversy over deportation.

Gov. Tim Walz is defending his vote to pardon a man convicted of molesting a 10-year-old child more than 20 years ago. Last week, the Trump administration deported Tou Lue Vang despite a pardon approved by Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson in their role on the Board of Pardons. Walz said the victim’s advocacy for Vang factored in his decision to grant the pardon. “I can tell you in these pardons, one of the overriding factors that continuously influences the decision — certianly of me, I can’t speak for the rest of the board, but looks like that — depends on where the victims are at,” Walz said. The governor emphasized that this action “didn’t let this person out of jail.” Vang completed his sentence — served entirely as supervised probation — in 2019. Walz said his vote to pardon Vang was not an attempt to prevent him from being deported, though Vang is at least the third convicted felon with pending removal orders to be pardoned in Minnesota this year. In May, the Board of Pardons unanimously granted clemency for At “Ricky” Chandee , who was convicted of second-degree assault in 1993; and Jai Vang , a Laotian man who was…

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Organizations: Trump administration, Attorney General’s Office

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