BOSTON — The former state senator convicted of fraud who wants a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump “deserves severe punishment,” according to the feds who cited Boston Herald coverage in their sentencing memo.

Dean Tran, a Massachusetts Republican who ran for Congress, last year was found guilty of pandemic assistance fraud and making false statements on federal tax returns. He was convicted by a federal jury of 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns.

Tran’s sentencing is on the schedule for Friday, and the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office is arguing that Tran should go to prison for two years.

“Tran has shown no remorse for his crimes or accepted responsibility for his actions,” reads the feds’ sentencing memo. “Instead, he has attempted to obstruct justice, cast blame elsewhere and made baseless accusations that have absolutely no support in law or fact. For these reasons, Tran is deserving of a sentence of 24 months in prison that will hold him responsible and punish him for his fraud, deceit and lies.”

Tran tried to obstruct justice through “inflammatory” Facebook posts, according to the feds. For instance, he wrote that the feds “misled the grand jury with bias and false statements to secure their indictments.”

The Herald’s Howie Carr after the trial started wrote an article about Tran’s Facebook posts.

“After the Howie Carr article ran and the government brought it to the attention of the Court, the Court expressed its concern that the defendant was attempting to interfere in the trial process,” the sentencing memo reads. “… ‘I’m obviously concerned the defendant is attempting to affect media coverage is another way of saying the defendant is attempting to affect the fairness of the trial.’ ”

Tran continued his Facebook posts during the trial even after this issue was raised in court, and the judge said he was considering a gag order.

Two days later, when Tran continued to make Facebook posts, the judge again brought up a potential gag order.

“Tran’s conduct during and after the trial show he deserves severe punishment,” the sentencing memo reads. “He perjured himself, ignored clear Court directives regarding his Facebook posts, and continues to deny any responsibility for his fraud schemes.”

Tran served in the Massachusetts State Senate, representing Worcester and Middlesex Counties from 2017 to January 2021.

After Tran’s State Senate term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently received pandemic unemployment benefits while he was also employed as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based retailer of automotive parts (the Automotive Parts Company). While working as a paid consultant, Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits.

Also, Tran concealed $54,700 in consulting income that he received from the Automotive Parts Company from his 2021 federal income tax return. This was in addition to thousands of dollars in income that Tran concealed from the IRS while collecting rent from tenants who rented his Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022.

Tran in 2017 became the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature.

His senate district included Fitchburg, Leominster, and several other communities in north-central Massachusetts.

Tran lost the State Senate seat in 2020, and he ended up running unsuccessfully for Congress in the 3rd District in 2022.

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