Trump pardons Jupiter shark divers who destroyed a fisherman's longline, released catch

Yahoo

7 days ago

WEST PALM BEACH — President Donald Trump has pardoned two Florida shark divers convicted of theft for rescuing sharks and a goliath grouper from what they believed was an illegal longline.
The May 28 pardon grants full clemency to John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell, who spotted the longline 3 miles off the Jupiter Inlet on Aug. 10, 2020, and pulled it ashore. The gear alone cost the vessel owner about $1,300, and the value of the lost sharks amounted to several thousand more.
Tourists aboard Moore and Mansell's boat testified that the men believed they were doing the right thing by confiscating the line and releasing the 19 sharks snagged by its hooks. Defense attorneys Marc Seitles and Ashley Litwin, who helped secure the men's pardon, said prosecutors' decision to pursue charges anyway was a clear case of government overreach.
Trump agreed.
"I'm finally free! I'm a free man," Mansell wrote in a text in the wake of his pardon. "I never stopped believing something or someone would do something about this, see the absurdity in this case and help me."
Moore and Mansell say they believed they were thwarting a crime by releasing the sharks, not actively committing one. It's why they called state wildlife officers to report the line, and why they smiled as they hauled the fishing gear onto a Jupiter dock — a moment photographed and shared online by a local blogger.
The photo went viral. It ruptured an already tenuous relationship between the local fishing and shark-diving industries and prompted Scott Taylor, captain of the boat to which the longline belonged, to call a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration investigator and seek criminal charges.
The 3-mile longline belonged to one of only five vessels in the world permitted by NOAA to harvest sandbar sharks for research. Federal prosecutors argued that the divers knew the line was legal and sabotaged it anyway to preserve shark populations for their own commercial interests.
A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $28,000 for the divers' legal defense, while one launched for the fisherman raised about $4,500. The divers rejected a misdemeanor plea deal on the eve of trial and chose not to testify in their defense, either.
Jurors deliberated for three days — longer than the trial itself — before finding the divers guilty.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sentenced the pair to one year of probation and ordered them to pay $3,345 in restitution to the Fort Pierce fisherman whose equipment was destroyed. Though spared from prison, their convictions made them felons, unable to vote, own firearms or freely travel abroad.
Trump is not alone in questioning the legitimacy of Moore and Mansell's prosecution. During a 2024 hearing in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, two judges voiced confusion over why the men were charged with a crime to begin with.
Appellate Judge Barbara Lagoa said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Watts-Fitzgerald prosecuted the men "for reasons that defy understanding." She compared him to Inspector Javert — the relentless lawman from "Les Misérables" who pursued a man for decades over the theft of a single loaf of bread.
'Moore and Mansell are felons because they tried to save sharks from what they believed to be an illegal poaching operation," Lagoa wrote.
"They are the only felons I have ever encountered, in eighteen years on the bench and three years as a federal prosecutor, who called law enforcement to report what they were seeing and what actions they were taking in real time.'
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Barry Partelow declined to investigate the longline immediately, and instead told Moore to leave it on the dock for him to collect later. By the time the officer finally returned, the line had been picked clean of its hardware and loaded into a dumpster at the order of the harbor master.
Go deeper: Jupiter divers who freed sharks from fishing line want their theft convictions overturned. What the judges said.
Despite what Lagoa called "troublesome aspects of the case," she and two other judges affirmed the divers' convictions last year, rejecting the argument that Middlebrooks had erred by refusing to instruct jurors that theft requires intent to use the property for personal gain.
The court held that under federal law, it was enough that the divers intentionally took property that wasn't theirs.
Trump's pardon marks the latest in a series of high-profile clemency actions aimed at criticizing what he has characterized as prosecutorial overreach. Mansell, in a text to The Palm Beach Post, thanked his appellate attorney Andrew Adler and Trump.
"Whether people believe in his politics or not, he chose to pardon me, somebody who deeply cares for the environment and only ever wanted to help," he wrote. "I can't help but feel extremely grateful."
Mansell's trial attorney, Ian Goldstein, said he was "absolutely thrilled" by the news.
"There couldn't have been a more deserving client," Goldstein said. "This case never should have been brought in the first place."
Watts-Fitzgerald declined to comment on both the pardon and the Inspector Javert comparison. He instead referred questions to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, who declined to comment, too.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump pardons Florida shark divers who freed fisherman's catch, line