News update
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned Tennessee Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger’s husband, who pleaded guilty more than a decade ago to health care fraud and other crimes and served time in federal prison.
Robert Harshbarger Jr. was a licensed pharmacist in 2013 when he admitted substituting a cheaper drug imported from China that was not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the iron sucrose that the FDA had approved for kidney dialysis patients to use. He was sentenced to and served four years in prison.
Trump signed the pardon document on Friday, according to the website of the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Department of Justice. It was among several pardons the Republican president issued, including to a former speaker of the Tennessee House and to former Major League Baseball slugger and New York Mets great Darryl Strawberry.
Trump last week also pardoned a former New York police sergeant who was convicted of helping China try to scare an ex-official into going back to his homeland. On Monday, Trump pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giulianihis onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and many others accused of backing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
A White House official on Tuesday defended the pardon for Harshbarger, saying that he was a victim of “excessive prosecution” and that the drug substitution he made was a common practice among pharmacists known as “compounding,” in which unapproved drugs are provided to patients based on their condition or for other reasons. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss the reasoning behind Trump’s clemency decision.
Presidents have broad constitutional powers to grant pardons, which do not erase criminal convictions but can be seen as acts of justice or mercy, often in cases that can further public welfare.
Harshbarger turned to the Chinese drug due to a backlog of the iron sucrose drug, the White House official said. No patients were alleged to have been harmed by the substitution, and doctors seemed to prefer the drug Harshbarger gave them because it was easier to administer, the official said.
Prosecutors said that even though there were no reports of patients being harmed, Harshbarger’s substitution still put patients at risk since the FDA cannot assure the safety and effectiveness of products from other countries.
Harshbarger has served his sentence, the official said. He also was ordered to pay restitution, pay a fine and forfeit $425,000 in cash.
Rep. Harshbarger, who is also a licensed pharmacist, was first elected to the U.S. House in 2020 and has been a strong supporter of Trump. She spoke in support of Trump outside his hush money criminal trial in New York in 2024 and in other settings.
Trump has backed all of her congressional campaigns and offered her his “Complete and Total Endorsement” for reelection in 2026 in a Nov. 3 social media post.
She was not a member of Congress when her husband pleaded guilty in 2013 to one count of distributing a misbranded drug and one count of health care fraud.
Robert Harshbarger’s license was revoked in 2013 after the conviction, according to the website of the Tennessee Department of Health. The congresswoman remains licensed, the records show.
The congresswoman’s office in Washington did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.
