The claims, checked
"Milton was convicted of fraud"
Correct. In October 2022 a federal jury found Trevor Milton guilty on securities and wire fraud counts. The core of the case was that he made misleading public statements about Nikola's technology and commercial progress, statements that inflated the company's value and misled retail investors. He was subsequently sentenced to prison.
"The demo truck just rolled downhill"
This one is real. A promotional video that presented a Nikola truck apparently driving was shown to depict a vehicle rolling down a slope, not moving under its own power. It became one of the emblematic examples of the gap between the company's claims and its actual capabilities.
"He was pardoned, so he did nothing wrong"
Milton received a presidential pardon in 2025. That is accurate, but the inference is not. A pardon operates on the criminal penalty; it does not retract the jury's verdict or the facts established at trial, and it does not by itself resolve separate civil or regulatory matters. On the record, the fraud findings stand as history even where the criminal punishment was lifted.