Ex-Suffolk DA Spota, Former Aide Seek Trump Pardon Over Corruption Convictions
Thomas Spota and Christopher McPartland, convicted in a 2019 cover-up of a police assault, filed clemency petitions with the Justice Department.
Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, 84, and his former corruption bureau chief Christopher McPartland, 50, have each submitted presidential clemency petitions asking Donald Trump to pardon them for their federal convictions, Department of Justice records show.
A 2019 jury found both men guilty on charges including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and serving as accessories to a civil rights violation against an inmate. Both received five-year federal prison sentences, though each spent roughly two years behind bars before being released. Both men also lost their law licenses.
The convictions stemmed from a 2012 incident in which then-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke beat a handcuffed detainee, Christopher Loeb, who had previously stolen items from Burke's car. Prosecutors established that Spota and McPartland worked to cover up the assault. Burke entered a separate guilty plea on federal charges and completed the bulk of a nearly four-year sentence.
McPartland, who currently operates a consulting firm that advises people on federal prison matters, has gone further than simply filing his clemency paperwork. He sat for an interview with a right-wing social media influencer, arguing that he and Spota were targeted by a politically weaponized Justice Department under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
"It is a classic, textbook example of weaponization," McPartland said of their convictions in that interview.
Spota, a Democrat during his years in office, has since taken a part-time administrative clerk job at a Long Island law firm.
The two petitions are now under review by the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, which evaluates applications and sends recommendations to the president. Since beginning his second term, Trump has granted clemency to approximately 1,700 individuals.
Burke does not appear in the pardon petition database. He was re-arrested in August 2023 on unrelated charges; those charges are expected to be dismissed later this year, provided he faces no further arrests in the interim.