SALT LAKE CITY — An investigation by FOX 13 News has revealed a pattern of political contributions by a Utah billionaire while he faced various types of criminal accusations.
Trevor Milton was the CEO of Nikola Motors, an electric-hydrogen truck company.
He stepped down from the company in 2020 before prosecutors charged him with fraud in 2021, accusing him of lying about almost every facet of the company – costing investors at least $600 million.
For example, prosecutors argued Milton’s prototype truck never worked... despite a promotional video tweeted by the company labeled “Nikola One In Motion.”
Prosecutors say the company towed the Nikola One to the top of a hill in Utah and simply rolled it down in an effort to give potential investors the illusion of a truck driving under its own power.
“The prototype was wholly missing significant parts, including gears and motors, and the control system (i.e., the system that communicates the driver’s directions to the vehicle) and other significant systems were missing or incomplete,” wrote the United States Attorney’s Office. “‘Fake it till you make it’ is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price.”
Milton was sentenced in 2023 to four years in prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution to victims who invested in his company.
“I invested in this company and lost around $70,000 while he pocketed millions,” wrote Georges Nehme in a letter to the judge. "I'm sorry Mr. Trevor. I won't forgive you. You took this money from my children(‘s) futures, and you are still going to be a millionaire when you get out."
“It breaks my heart, but people make money and they lose money in the stock market,” Milton said. “That’s what the stock market is.”
The judge never required Milton to report to prison, pending an appeal.
The case never made it to appeal. President Donald Trump granted Milton a full and unconditional pardon in 2025.
When asked about the pardon, the president referenced "fantastic recommendations... from people you know very well, all top-of-the-line people."
“They say the thing that [Milton] did wrong was he was one of the first people who supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” Trump described, referring to himself in the third person. “He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn’t know him, but he liked him!"
An investigation by FOX 13 News has revealed several political contributions by Milton to the Trump campaign and his allies.
Records show many of the donations were processed after Milton was sentenced.
- $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee on October 10, 2024.
- $750,000 to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Alliance on September 18, 2024.
- $123,900 to the Republican National Convention on October 10, 2024.
- $119,300 to the Republican National Convention on October 10, 2024.
- $41,300 to the Republican National Convention on October 10, 2024.
Milton also donated $10,000 to the state Republican parties for each of the 47 states — with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont. Most of the donations occurred on the same date: October 10, 2024.
President Trump did not address Milton’s political contributions.
The White House has not responded to questions from FOX 13 News.
For the past month, Milton has been trying to convince the public his donations to the president had nothing to do with being pardoned by the president.
“I mean, people can say that, but it’s not true,” Milton said. “It had nothing to do with it. The money’s never been brought up in a single conversation I’ve had with him or the White House or anybody when they’ve called to tell me about the pardon and everything else. I’ve never even heard anyone ever ask me for money.”
Milton said he has only met President Trump “in passing, like as you go to a fundraiser.”
He said he believes he was pardoned by the president because of the merits of his case.
Here’s how Milton described one of his phone calls with the president:
“A lot of people here love you. It’s a bunch of crap what happened to you. You’re now officially free. They can’t hurt you. You’re cleaner than a baby’s bottom, and you’re cleaner than I am!”
Milton admits he waited until after the election to file his petition for a presidential pardon, which he described as a one-sheet piece of paper. He declined to provide a copy of the application to FOX 13 News.
"Biden’s justice department is the one who attacked me, so I was like, ‘There’s no sense in sending a pardon application into Biden,’” Milton said. “He’s not going to do anything for me.”
Milton also stated his team made efforts to avoid conflicts of interest by having his lead attorney, Brad Bondi, not file the pardon petition.
Brad Bondi is the brother of United States Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“[President Trump] knows that I donated to his campaign because we had to make sure that it was clear of anything, that there was no conflicts,” Milton said.
On appeal, Milton planned to argue the judge gave improper instructions to the jury and that one of the jurors was biased against rich people. Milton also said he believes the case should have been heard in Utah rather than New York.
“Even an innocent person has no chance of getting a fair trial in New York,” Milton said. “I had a company worth more than $30 billion, and they knew I could sway the political world. They wanted to take me out.”
It’s not the first time Milton has donated money to a politician while facing criminal accusations.
In 2020, Milton gave $15,000 to then-Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
The donation came two months after Reyes’ office took over an extortion case related to sexual misconduct allegations against Milton. The office chose not to investigate the sexual misconduct allegations.
FOX 13 News first informed the Utah Attorney General’s office we had questions about the case on September 24, 2020.
The next day, on September 25, 2020, Reyes’ campaign refunded the $15,000 donation.
“Given the current allegations, and although at this point they are only allegations, we felt it best to return the recent donations,” wrote Alan Crooks, a general consultant for the Reyes campaign.
Ultimately, Milton faced sexual misconduct allegations from five women.
Two of the alleged victims were interviewed by the St. George Police Department.
One of the alleged victims was interviewed by the Unified Police Department.
“It feels really vulnerable talking about it,” said Aubrey Smith, Milton’s cousin. “He goes, ‘Well, yeah, I’m in a class. It’s a massage class, and everybody takes off their shirt during massages. It’s what masseuses have clients do.’ I was super, super naïve.”
Smith said she was 15 years old. Milton was 17.
“And then he goes, ‘Yeah, in my class, the girls always take their bras off because the straps get in the way,’ and I froze,” Smith recalled. “As he said it, he undid my bra and took it off... and he groped me, and somebody eventually knocked on the door.”
Documents from the Unified Police Department show the case was not prosecuted because it was past the statute of limitations.
Another woman, Allison, was also 15 years old when she worked for Milton in St. George.
She asked FOX 13 News to not publish her face or full name.
Allison said she was “fingered” by Milton in the theatre room after work.
“I never worked for him another day, and I went home ashamed,” Allison said, crying. “He was my boss. He was my ride home. I was much smaller than him. I just wanted to go home."
Documents from the St. George Police Department show charges were not filed against Milton due to concerns that there was “not enough information to prosecute this case.”
Another woman from St. George said she was sexually assaulted by Milton on a modeling trip.
Although the statute of limitations in her case had also run out, she documented her case with the St. George Police Department and provided them copies of messages she exchanged with Milton.
Milton has denied all wrongdoing, stating he now wants to tell his side of the story for the first time.
“When I make donations, someone could try to tie that to anything,” Milton said. “They’re not connected to anything, but people have tried to make those connections before... I’ve met Sean (Reyes) a few times. He was in a tough spot in his battle to win his position, and I thought it would be a good thing to help him get reelected at the time when I made the donation.”
Milton insists the reason he was never charged with sexual misconduct is because of evidence showing the women were offered money by short sellers to falsify allegations against him.
“There was a couple girls that were promised money by the short sellers to make allegations about me, and they found email communications between these girls and guys where they were promising them money to come out and make allegations,” Milton said. “The detectives were like, ‘This is done. Instantly, this is done. We’re not getting involved in something where people are promising you money to come after someone.’”
FOX 13 News has made every effort to confirm the authenticity of Milton’s story. Police reports obtained by FOX 13 News do not show any ‘evidence’ similar to what Milton described.
Instead, a spokesperson for the St. George Police Department told a vastly different version of the story.
“We’re required by law to put in [the reports] everything that we know,” said Officer Tiffany Mitchell. “I highly doubt evidence like that would have been left out of the case.”
Mitchell described the officer assigned to the case as a “very meticulous” detective who would have documented exculpatory evidence if it was presented to him.
“[Milton] is not willing to provide it himself?” Mitchell asked.
Craig Johnson, an attorney representing Milton's accusers, said he would have dropped the women as clients if he found out they were offered money to make false accusations.
“Categorically, that’s false,” Johnson said. “That didn’t happen... There are no emails.”
“So you think he’s making it up?” asked FOX 13 News investigative reporter Adam Herbets.
“Absolutely,” Johnson responded. “This is news to me, and if he has proof of that? I’d love to see it... When he brings up my clients and puts their names in his mouth again and claims that they’re being paid to lie about things, it’s important that I set the record straight.”
Milton declined to provide a copy of the emails.
“Just for privacy reasons, I couldn’t show anyone,” Milton said. “I could end up getting sued over it. I can talk about it, but it’s different when you’re putting out email chains from people.”
Milton is facing a class-action lawsuit from investors. He has also filed a lawsuit against Hindenburg Research, an investment research firm which published information about Nikola Motors prior to Milton's fraud indictment.
A spokesperson for Milton released the following statement:
“We’d like to comment further, but there is ongoing litigation. Most of this will come out during the upcoming proceedings.”
Milton said anyone who disagrees with the presidential pardon does not “appreciate” the Constitution. He is currently working on a documentaryto expose flaws in the US Justice System.