WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump

has pardoned former U.S. Representative Stephen Buyer, an

Indiana Republican, who was convicted of securities fraud for

engaging in insider trading in 2018 as a T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) consultant

ahead of a $23 billion merger with Sprint.

The proclamation, issued on Thursday and announced by the

White House on Friday, gave no specific rationale for the pardon

other than to assert that Buyer's service as a U.S. Army judge

advocate general and member of Congress "was distinguished and

highly productive."

It also said that Trump, in granting Buyer a "full, complete

and unconditional pardon," was acting on the "advice and

recommendation" of 52 current and former members of the U.S.

Senate and House of Representatives listed in the proclamation.

Buyer served in the House as a Republican from Indiana

between 1993 and 2011 before working as a corporate consultant.

He was found guilty in March of 2023 on four counts of

securities fraud, and was sentenced in September of that year to

22 months in prison.

Prosecutors said at trial that Buyer bought Sprint stock

after learning from a T-Mobile executive that the

telecommunications companies were in merger talks in 2018 and

made illegal trades again the following year.

According to prosecutors, Buyer made more than $100,000 from

the Sprint trades and more than $200,000 from buying stock in

Navigant Consulting Inc. before it was acquired by Guidehouse in

2019.

Buyer, who had served as one of the House managers in the

1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, took the

stand at his own trial and denied trading on inside information.

Prosecutors sought three years in prison for Buyer in court

filings, saying that he had abused his clients' trust and lied

on the stand.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused in May of this year to hear

Buyer's appeal of his conviction.