Trump pardons ex-Google, Uber engineer who plead guilty to stealing trade secrets

In one of his final acts in office, former President Trump pardoned ex-Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski, who was sentenced last year to 18 months in prison for stealing self-driving cars-related trade secrets.

Levandowski pled guilty a year after being indicted for 33 counts for downloading more than 14,000 engineering, manufacturing and business files from Google in the months before his departure from the company in early 2016.

“Mr. Levandowski pled guilty to a single criminal count arising from civil litigation,” the White House wrote in a statement announcing the pardon. “Notably, his sentencing judge called him a ‘brilliant, groundbreaking engineer that our country needs.’ Mr. Levandowski has paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good.”