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250 PARDONS RUMOR ENDS NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER
Remember the Wall Street Journal’s mid-May report that White House officials were considering a plan for President Trump to issue 250 pardons by July 4th to commemorate the USA’s 250th birthday?
The rumor was that the clemency action might happen on June 14th – Flag Day and Trump’s birthday – or on Independence Day. The buzz was amplified by an Atlantic Magazine article last week, which reported that “the White House is discussing a possible announcement of presidential pardons as a centerpiece of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations over the Fourth of July weekend, according to 14 people familiar with the conversations. The idea has been described as ‘250 pardons for 250 years,’ an initiative that would put one of the most politically fraught constitutional powers at the forefront of the country’s birthday festivities.”
White House Pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson was said to be behind the initiative.
However, Trump’s 80th birthday came and went. Finally, on Friday, Trump announced his clemency list of 11 people, nine of whom had been convicted of tinkering with diesel emission controls on trucks. Another was a former lobbyist convicted of fraud who, since his release, had donated millions to Republican causes.
No people convicted of drug, gun or sex offenses made the cut.
While The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal had warned that Trump had not signed off on the “250 for 250” deal, the mere rumor sparked a frenzy among federal prisoners to petition for clemency (or update what was already on file). This predictable result occurred despite law professor and clemency expert Mark Osler warning in April that the Dept of Justice Office of Pardon Attorney is ‘a zombie office, in the sense that they’re assigning numbers to cases that come in, but it’s not clear that anything’s happening beyond that.”
According to a report issued by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) last December, less than 1% of Trump’s 1,700 pardons and commutations came through the OPA.
The Atlantic, The White House Considers Granting 250 Pardons for the Nation’s Birthday (June 29, 2026)
Wall Street Journal, White House Explores 250 Pardons to Mark America’s 250th Birthday (May 13, 2026)
New Yorker, Donald Trump’s Pardon Economy (April 27, 2026)
Ayanna Pressley, Trump’s Clemency Gap: How Trump’s Pardons are Ignoring the People Who Need Them the Most (December 15, 2025)
~ Thomas L. Root