Lindsay Clancy’s Attorney Asked Trump to Do Something He Has No Power to Do

Lindsay Clancy used Apple Maps to calculate exactly how long her husband would be gone while she strangled her three children.

Now her defense attorney is asking the President of the United States to bail her out.

Trump just answered him in a way that every parent in America needs to hear.

What the Defense Attorney Actually Did

Kevin Reddington went on national television and asked Donald Trump to pardon a woman convicted of nothing – charged with three counts of first-degree murder for killing 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023.

There's one problem: Trump has no authority over state criminal cases.

A presidential pardon covers federal crimes only.

Reddington said so himself on WBZ-TV, acknowledging Trump had no legal authority to intervene but hoping the president could "influence the outcome" anyway.

Translation: he wanted Trump to pressure a state district attorney into folding.

It didn't work.

When reporters asked Trump about the Clancy case Sunday, he said three sentences that should be framed on every prosecutor's wall in America.

"There's no winner there. There's no win no matter what you do. Three children are dead."

Then Trump called it what it is – "a state situation, not a federal one" – and told the defense and prosecution to resolve it at the local level where it belongs.

The Mistrial the Media Turned Into a Cause

The jury deadlocked 11 to 1 after five weeks of testimony and seven days of deliberations.

Eleven jurors were reportedly ready to acquit Clancy on grounds she wasn't criminally responsible.

One juror refused.

The defense called that holdout "biased" and demanded Judge William Sullivan remove him from the panel.

Sullivan refused.

The defense emergency-appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

The Supreme Judicial Court denied them.

Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4.

Within days, that lone holdout juror was being doxxed online and $50,000 was reportedly raised to pay for his security.

Let that context sit for a moment.

A man exercised his legal right as a juror – the same right that gives every American their day in court – and a mob responded by hunting him down.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz called it from the start: a "cruel and calculated killing of three innocents."

The prosecution argued Clancy didn't snap into a fog of psychosis.

She sent her husband Patrick to pick up dinner and checked Apple Maps to confirm how long the drive would take.

She had 20 minutes.

She used them.

What the Postpartum Psychosis Defense Has Always Meant

The postpartum psychosis defense isn't new.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in Texas in 2001 and used the same defense.

She was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains committed to a state mental health facility.

Studies of similar cases from 1969 to 2010 show courts have responded with wildly inconsistent outcomes – some women acquitted entirely, some given probation, some sentenced to life.

Legal research shows the insanity defense succeeds in less than 0.1 percent of cases generally.

Postpartum psychosis cases have beaten those odds in some courts – but the key variable is always the same: did the defendant know what she was doing was wrong?

Prosecutors say Clancy did.

She researched the route, calculated the timing, and sent her husband on a deliberately chosen errand to clear the house.

Twenty minutes.

Planned to the minute.

What Reddington is really arguing is that the legal process failed his client – so he went on Good Morning America to ask a president to override it entirely.

Why Trump's Answer Was the Right One

Donald Trump has pardoned people who many Americans believed deserved pardons.

He has used that power aggressively in his second term.

When Trump says this is a state matter and there's nothing he can do – that isn't a dodge.

That's the Constitution working exactly the way it's supposed to work.

Federalism means Massachusetts handles Massachusetts murder cases.

Timothy Cruz – the elected district attorney – has until September 29 to announce whether he'll retry the case.

Eleven of twelve jurors wanted acquittal.

But the decision belongs to Cruz, not to a defense attorney making a media circuit, and not to a president who was never in a position to help in the first place.

Trump said it best: "I hope they can work it out. That's something they have to work out."

Three children were strangled in a basement.

Their names were Cora, Dawson, and Callan.

Timothy Cruz is going to speak for them.

Not Kevin Reddington's media tour, and not a presidential pardon that was never legal to begin with.

Sources:

• Bonny Chu, "Trump Says Lindsay Clancy Case Is a 'State Situation' Following Attorney's Pardon Plea," Fox News, September 13, 2026.
• Staff, "Trump Responds to Lindsay Clancy Lawyer Pardon Plea: 'No Win No Matter What,'" The Spokesman-Review, September 13, 2026.
• Staff, "District Attorney Lashes Out in First Statement After Lindsay Clancy Mistrial: 'Cruel and Calculated Killing of Three Innocents,'" Mediaite, September 4, 2026.
• Staff, "Holdout Juror in Clancy Trial Doxxed After Mistrial," X/Trending, September 13, 2026.