President Trump Just Pardoned Trail Runner Michelino Sunseri

Updated November 11, 2025 02:41PM

On Friday, November 7, Trump issued an official pardon for Sunseri, the mountain runner found guilty of breaking federal law inside Grand Teton National Park. The news was published by Pacific Legal Foundation, the group that represented Sunseri.

“Michelino is pleased, of course, but nobody expects a pardon,” Michael Poon, Sunseri’s attorney, told Outside. “He shouldn’t have had to go through this ordeal to begin with. It’s not a case that should have ever been brought to trial.”

Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit public interest law firm, touts itself as an organization that sues the federal government “when it constitutional rights.” Poon told Outside that the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Washington D.C. representatives advocated on Sunseri’s behalf with members of the Trump Administration. But he said that nobody from the organization ever spoke directly with the president.

“There’s been a lot of media around this case,” Poon said. “I suspect that it caught the eye of the officials in charge of the pardon process.”

The presidential pardon marks a bookend to the 14-month ordeal involving Sunseri, a 33-year-old trail runner from Idaho. On September 2, 2024, he sought to break the speed record on the Grand Teton. He ascended and then descended the peak in 2 hours, 50 minutes, and 10 seconds—fast enough for the new record. But the GPS file of his run showed that he took a shortcut on the descent and cut one of the switchbacks on the peak’s lower flanks, opting to run on a closed trail that bypassed the switchback.

Fastest Known Time, a keeper of records on hiking trails (which is owned by Outside’s parent company, Outside Inc.) disavowed the record. And in the days afterward, the U.S. government filed charges against Sunseri for breaking U.S. federal regulation 36 CFR 2.1 (b).

The rule states that a park superintendent “may restrict hiking or pedestrian use to a designated trail or walkway system” and specifies that “leaving a trail or walkway to shortcut between portions of the same trail or walkway, or to shortcut to an adjacent trail or walkway” is illegal.

In a comment written on the social media site Strava, Sunseri said he would “100% make the exact same choice.”

The incident kicked off a legal back-and-forth that lasted for more than a year. Sunseri was backed by a thriving online fanbase, which rallied around the “Free Michelino” hashtag on social media. He also became a frequent guests on podcasts and video interviews to talk about his legal situation.

Sunseri’s case appeared to have the upper hand in July, when The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that the National Park Service backed away from the prosecution on the eve of the trial.

“The political appointees at the NPS and Interior Department withdrew their support for the charge, but the prosecution went for it anyway,” Poon said.

In September 2025, federal judge Stephanie A. Hambrick found Sunseri guilty. Sunseri left “the Garnet Canyon Trail to use the shortcut of the Old Climber’s Trail,” violating a code restricting hikers’ use on designated trails and prohibiting shortcuts in certain areas, Hambrick’s verdict read.

At the time, Sunseri faced up to a $5,000 fee and a potential lifetime ban from Grand Teton National Park. In October, federal prosecutors offered Sunseri a plea deal for a lesser punishment: 60 hours of community service and a course on wilderness stewardship.

Sunseri joins a growing list of other convictions to be overturned by presidential pardon. On November 10, 77 people accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election, including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, received presidential pardons. In October, the president pardoned Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and former congressman George Santos, among others.