Washington DC - President Donald Trump has pardoned a former Virginia sheriff convicted of accepting more than $70,000 in bribes.

"Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ," Trump posted on Truth Social.

Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted last December on federal bribery charges.

The 53-year-old ex-sheriff of Northern Virginia's Culpeper County was accused of appointing local businesspeople as deputies in exchange for cash payments.

Donald Trump Trump administration to pull the plug on all federal funding for Harvard

Prosecutors said he accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions from various people, including two undercover FBI agents.

"This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn't deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left 'monsters,' and 'left for dead,'" Trump wrote.

"He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life."

Since retaking the White House, Trump has issued a range of pardons, including for January 6 Capitol rioters and former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore, who in October was convicted of wire fraud. Meanwhile, his DOJ has moved to end probes of police violence spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement.