Tag Archives: pardon

A Nikola Truckload of Pardons – Update for May 9, 2025

May 9, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

CLEMENCY BAZAAR

Trevor Milton knew how to do it. The founder of the electric-truck maker Nikola Corp. was convicted of wire fraud in 2022 for a promotional video that purported to show its electric semi rig hauling a trailer but was really a prototype without any electroc motors that Nikola had recorded rolling downhill.

Trevor applied for a presidential pardon, arguing that his trial was flawed by a biased juror, lousy jury instructions, and prosecutors bringing charges in the wrong venue.

Complaining about an unfair prosecution hardly separated Trevor from thousands of other federal prisoners unhappy about their convictions. But Trevor had more: he pointed out that the prosecutors were the same people who had previously investigated some of President Trump’s allies. And he prepared for seeking a pardon by donating almost $1.7 million to support Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and hired two lawyers well-known in conservative circles to push for his pardon.

“All the effort appeared to pay off,” Bloomberg Law reported this week, when Trevor got a phone call. “[A]fter 30 seconds on hold, President Donald Trump got on the line and told Milton that he was going to grant him a full pardon.” A week later, Trump called him again to report “’[i]t’s signed. You’re cleaner than a baby’s bottom, you’re cleaner than I am, Trevor,’ Milton recalled” to Bloomberg.

The president “is effectively and responsibly using his constitutional authority,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields explained. “Over the past four years, we have witnessed the weaponization of the justice system against the president’s allies. The president is committed to righting those wrongs and ending lawfare.”

Some critics suggest that Trump is not righting wrongs as much as running a pardon bazaar. Gregg Nunziata, former general counsel for Marco Rubio when he was a senator and now executive director for the Society for the Rule of Law, told Roll Call that Trump’s actions are “deeply un-American.”

“From the first days in office, there has been a pattern in pardons, in personnel, in the policies of using the powers of government to reward the president’s friends and allies and punish his perceived enemies,” Nunziata said. “That is the rule of a man out for his own interest and that is an assault on the full protection of the law and notions of fair play that our society, our country, depend on.”

As for its role, the Dept of Justice – which is without a Pardon Attorney since the firing of Elizabeth Oyer over the Mel Gibson gun flap two months ago – is “committed to timely and carefully reviewing” all clemency applications and making unbiased, consistent recommendations to the president, according to a DOJ statement.

Milton said he filed for clemency with the DOJ Pardon Attorney in January. Bloomberg reported, however, that the pardon didn’t follow the normal DOJ review process.

President Joe Biden set a record for granting clemency during his term, handing out over 4,000 commutations but only about 80 pardons. The commutations went overwhelmingly to federal prisoners and people who fell within classes of convictions – primarily for marijuana possession – or for CARES Act home confinees. Biden received widespread and bipartisan criticism for preemptively pardoning his family and allies to prevent Trump from going after them criminally.

Trump, on the other hand, has set a presidential record for granting pardons – 1,590 and counting – starting with the January 6th Capitol rioters and then expanding to include white-collar defendants, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, and anti-abortion activists. Pardon recipients include “numerous others who praised him or served as a witness against political rivals, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich… He also pardoned Devon Archer and commuted the sentence of Jason Galanis, former business partners of Hunter Biden who served as witnesses in the House probe against the former president,” Roll Call reported yesterday.

Trump has even extended his pardon efforts beyond the limits of presidential authority (which does not extend to pardons for state offenses). He posted on TruthSocial Monday night that has directed DOJ “to take all necessary action to help secure the release” of Tina Peters, a former Colorado local election clerk in Colorado who was sentenced to nine years in state prison last fall for her role in a voting system data breach, a failed attempt to find voter fraud from the 2020 election.

Last March, DOJ filed a statement of interest in Peters’ pending 28 USC § 2254 habeas corpus case pending in US District Court for the District of Colorado. The post-conviction action seeks federal review of the constitutionality of her state conviction. The DOJ claims that it is concerned about Peters’ health and allege that “[r]easonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case.”

The pace of Trump’s pardons eclipses the president in second place, Bill Clinton (396 pardons in eight years) and in the process has fostered a “breakdown in the traditional vetting process for deciding who gets relief and supercharged a pardon economy unlike anything seen before,” as Bloomberg put it.

As a result, people who can afford it are spending big to get their applications in front of Trump, devoting tens of thousands of dollars to fees for attorneys, lobbyists and consultants on the pardon process.

“There’s a huge level of interest,” said Margaret Colgate Love, who served as the US Pardon Attorney during the Clinton years and now represents clemency clients. “People think Trump is going to do something for them.”

Presidents from both parties have long used their authority to circumvent official process and dole out pardons to friends and supporters. The constitution puts almost no limits on the practice, though leaders typically wait until the end of their tenure to award clemency. Trump has announced clemency grants on a dozen occasions since he took office three months ago.

All of this is not good news for the ordinary federal defendant, let alone a prisoner who can afford a donation of several Honeybuns and a couple of soups to the Trump campaign. “It seems like ordinary people who don’t have the resources to hire a lobbyist or well-connected lawyer and don’t have political connections and access to the White House front door are not being considered for clemency at all,” Oyer told Bloomberg.

A White House spokesman said Trump would work with the administration’s pardon czar, Alice Marie Johnson, to “continue to provide justice and redemption to countless deserving Americans.” Those with fat wallets and MAGA hats, that is.

Bloomberg Law, Lawyers Are Quoting $1 Million Fees to Get Pardons to Trump (May 7, 2025)

Roll Call, Pardons for friends, retribution for foes (May 7, 2025)

Democracy Docket, Trump Orders DOJ to ‘Secure the Release’ of Convicted Election Denier Tina Peters (May 6, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

Cash Registers Ringing for Presidential Clemency… Just Not For Uncle Sam – Update for May 5, 2025

May 5, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

PARDONS: CRIME AND DRAMA

Former Dept of Justice Pardon Attorney Elizabeth Oyer last week claimed on social media that President Trump’s pardons of white-collar defendants have cost Americans $1 billion.

Oyer totaled the money that the pardoned people owed or might owe in restitution and fines. Some pardon recipients had not yet been sentenced, leading her to estimate the restitution that might be imposed. The pardoned people who had already begun paying restitution can now seek reimbursement from the government.

Oyer, who has been outspoken against the Trump administration since she was fired in March over her opposition to a DOJ decision to restore actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights, said “that the $1 billion figure highlights the unusually high number of Republican allies convicted of fraud and pardoned by Trump before they served their sentences.” She called that “a significant break from the traditional and often protracted pardon application process,” the Washington Post reported.

“It’s unprecedented for a president to grant pardons that have the effect of wiping out so much debt owed by people who have committed frauds,” Oyer said. “They do not meet Justice Department standards for recommending a pardon.”

Law360 reported last week that the spate of White House pardons is resulting in white-collar defendants being solicited by scammers who promise to influence White House connections to secure pardons and commutations in exchange for big fees.

The clemency pitches call for payments of hundreds of thousands or millions, “prey on the desperation of people serving or facing prison time,” some experts say. “Historically, seeking a pardon was seen as a low-percentage effort, something that would be very difficult to pursue as part of the defense strategy, except in the most obvious circumstances,” Joe Whitley, chair of law firm Womble Bond Dickinson’s white collar defense practice, told Law360.

One clemency pitch that a “consultant” recently sent to a bank fraud defendant called for payment of $155,000 a month for six months, along with an additional $1 million “success fee” once clemency was granted. The consultant claimed to have access to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to the defendant’s lawyer. The defendant was also pitched a different clemency service for $3 million, including a $2.5 million success fee, for “advocacy with the Trump administration for a pardon and/or case dismissal,” Law360 said.

“Unfortunately, a lot of what’s going on and a lot of the decisions being made are setting up corruption — it’s making this all dependent on having access to people in power and charging money for that access,” one big law firm partner told Law360.

A white collar sentencing consultant was quoted as saying that a typical clemency package costs about $40,000 to $50,000. Law firms might charge up to $200,000 for clemency work.

“Selling a guaranteed pardon because of a perceived relationship is a problem,” the consultant told Law360. “In my opinion, it’s gross negligence to say, ‘I can get the president of the United States to grant this clemency on your behalf’.”

Washington Post, Fired DOJ attorney says on TikTok that Trump pardons cost U.S. $1 billion (May 1, 2025)

Law360, Pardon Me? Why Offers To Secure Clemency Might Be A Scam (April 24, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

The Short Rocket – Update for April 29, 2025

April 29, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

Today (and not just because Gayle King and Kate Perry came back to earth after their blasted-into-space celebrity stunt), here’s a short rocket of some stories you might have missed.

CASE SHORTS

Who’s Getting Pardoned? The Associated Press reported last week that President Donald Trump pardoned Michelle Fiore, a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she embezzled $70,000 meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer.

Fiore spent the money on personal expenses, including a facelift. She has been released on her own recognizance ahead of sentencing next month.

AP said, “In a lengthy statement Thursday on Facebook, the loyal Trump supporter expressed gratitude to the president while also accusing the US government and ‘select media outlets’ of a broad, decade-long conspiracy to ‘target and dismantle’ her life.”

She’s right, of course: Such media dismantling is the easily foreseen consequence of stealing charitable contributions to finance one’s own lifestyle.

The White House confirmed the pardon without comment.

Meanwhile, former congressman George Santos, sentenced last week to 87 months for multiple frauds, publicly appealed to Trump to offer him “a chance to prove I’m more than the mistakes I’ve made.” Santos’s lawyers said the legal team would seek a presidential pardon — something that Santos himself had ruled out two days before his sentencing.

The Dept of Justice reports that the last dozen or so clemency grants are all of white-collar defendants, with a lone commutation of a defendant accused of opioid distribution in early March.

Associated Press, Trump pardons Nevada politician who paid for cosmetic surgery with funds to honor a slain officer (April 24, 2025)

The New York Times, George Santos’s Closing Act: A Prison Sentence of More Than 7 Years (April 26, 2025)

DOJ, Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump (2025-Present) (April 27, 2025)

Durbin Ending Senate Career: Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), a mainstay on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is retiring at the end of his current Senate term in December 2026.

Durbin has served on the Judiciary Committee for more than two decades, including as chairman from 2021 through 2024. He wrote the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the federal sentencing disparity for crack/powder cocaine offenses. In 2018, Durbin and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) led bipartisan efforts to enact the First Step Act, the most significant criminal justice reform legislation in a generation. Since then, he and Grassley led efforts–not yet successful–to pass the Safer Detention Act, Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, and Smarter Sentencing Act.

Press Release, Durbin Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election in 2026 (April 23, 2025)

Roll Call, Durbin’s run at Judiciary Committee focused on immigration, judges (April 23, 2025)

Angelos Meets With Johnson: Pardon recipient Weldon Angelos, founder of the criminal justice non-profit The Weldon Project, met with Pardon Czar Alice Johnson at the White House last Wednesday to discuss future clemency options.

Marijuana Moment reported last week that “[a]s the cannabis community continues to search for signs that the president will proactively engage on the issue after he endorsed [marijuana] rescheduling… the meeting between Weldon Angelos and the White House official signals at least some openness to the idea of acting on marijuana reform.”

Angelos said the meeting left him “feeling incredibly hopeful.”

Marijuana Moment, Marijuana Activist Pardoned By Trump Meets With White House Officials As Pressure Builds For Reform (April 25, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

Is It ‘Tabula Rasa’ for J6ers? – Update for February 27, 2025

February 27, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

DEPT OF JUSTICE READS JANUARY 6TH PARDONS EXPANSIVELY

In further evidence that this is not your parents’ Dept of Justice, the DOJ last week began arguing in several pending cases that Trump’s clemency for January 6th rioters covers unrelated crimes that were discovered during FBI searches stemming from the attack on the Capitol.

Prosecutors moved to drop felon-in-possession charges against two former January 6th defendants, 18 USC § 922(g)(1) offenses that were based on guns found at the two men’s homes during the January 6th-related searches (although the guns themselves were not connected to the riot). The government argues that the gun offenses were covered by invoking Trump’s Day 1 executive order granting mass clemency to January 6th defendants because the searches that found the guns were “conduct related to” those events.

It works like this: Mike and Millie Maga were identified as being among the peaceful tourists who wandered around the Capitol on January 6, 2021, taking in the grandeur, chasing legislators, bear-spraying the gendarmes, and smearing their patriotic feces on the walls. A year or so later, jackbooted thugs from the FBI searched their home and found out that Mike – who had a couple of prior felonies on his record – had an AR-style rifle and a couple of Trump Glocks.

So Mike is quite properly charged with being a felon in possession of a gun under 18 USC §922(g)(1). Right?

“Not so fast,” the prosecutor says. President Trump’s “full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021…” includes a crime committed a year or so later, the government seems to be saying, as long as that later crime was only discovered because a search conducted for evidence of the January 6th offense.

Confusing? It was to U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, a Trump appointee who sits on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Yesterday, she questioned DOJ attorney Jennifer Blackwell about the government’s shifting position on the application of Trump’s January 6th pardon.

The judge expressed frustration with the government’s changing position on the pardon’s scope, appearing skeptical of the DOJ’s newly developed argument that the January 6th pardon applied to the gun charges. She suggested that pardons “have a fixed meaning” on the day they are issued, a “clear definition of the pardon” that doesn’t evolve or change.

“The intent cannot evolve over time as new cases are brought to [Trump’s] attention,” Friedrich said, meaning that the president can’t change the intent he when he issued the pardon as he subsequently learns of new charges about which he was unaware when he signed the clemency.

The expansive reading of the pardon marks the latest push by the Administration to absolve January 6th defendants, whom Trump has described as political prisoners and victims of persecution.

In another case, a North Carolina defendant has pled not guilty to child pornography charges stemming from images found in the search of his residence as part of the January 6th investigation. NPR observed that in that case, “it’s unclear how broadly the Trump administration will interpret the pardons.”

Politico, Justice Department broadens Trump’s Jan 6 clemency as it moves to drop gun cases (February 22, 2025)

NPR, Justice Department broadens Jan. 6 pardons to cover gun, drug-related charges (February 20, 2025)

NBC, Federal judge grills Trump’s Justice Department over argument that Jan. 6 pardon covers a separate gun case (February 26, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

‘Go Ask Alice – I Think She’ll Know’ – Update for February 24, 2025

February 24, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

TRUMP NAMES FORMER PRISONER ALICE JOHNSON ‘PARDON CZAR’

President Trump announced last Thursday that Alice Johnson, whose 1996 life sentence for a cocaine conspiracy was commuted in 2018, would serve as White House “pardon czar,” a position in which she will “advise him on criminal justice issues,” according to the NY Times.

No one knows exactly what this position entails or its significance but having a White House liaison responsible for clemency issues and who has the President’s ear is unprecedented in modern times. Still, many federal prisoners are starting to think that Jefferson Airplane had it right in “White Rabbit” when it advised, “Go ask Alice – I think she’ll know.”

After Kim Kardashian talked Trump into commuting Johnson’s sentence, Johnson initially convinced Trump to grant clemency to a couple of her FCI Aliceville cellies. Later, at Trump’s request, she suggested the names of people to receive clemency at the end of his first term.

The New York Times reported that in announcing her appointment, Trump said Johnson “would be advising him on cases of people convicted of nonviolent crimes who had gotten sentences not likely be handed down today. Ms. Johnson’s case was seen as an example of draconian sentencing laws that disproportionately affected nonviolent offenders, particularly women and members of minority groups.”

Trump told reporters that “Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn’t even be prosecuted.” That’s probably not quite correct: Her indictment, which named 16 defendants, described Alice as a leader in a multi-million-dollar cocaine ring, and detailed dozens of drug transactions and deliveries. At sentencing, her judge said she was “the quintessential entrepreneur” in an operation that dealt in 2,000 to 3,000 kilos of cocaine, with a “very significant” impact on the community.

Still, Johnson’s post-sentencing record was exceptional, and her work since her release seven years ago has been tireless. “Alice Johnson has been a relentless advocate for second chances, and her own story is a testament to the power of redemption,” Weldon Angelos, another Trump clemency recipient and founder of the criminal justice organization The Weldon Project, told Marijuana Moment last week.

The Times said that Johnson’s appointment illustrates how Trump’s

approach to criminal justice reform is rife with contradictions. He signed the bipartisan First Step Act, which aimed to reduce prison sentences for certain nonviolent drug crimes, during his first term, then told advisers privately soon afterward that he regretted it, according to multiple officials working with him at the time… During his 2024 campaign, he called for shooting thieves who steal from drugstores and for the death penalty for drug traffickers and dealers. Then, in one of his first acts as president in his second term, he issued a grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — violent and nonviolent alike.”

Angelos, however, is focused on the appointment rather than the President’s record on criminal justice. “The creation of a pardon czar position is a significant step in prioritizing clemency and criminal justice reform,” he said, “signaling a commitment to addressing injustices in the system and ensuring that mercy is applied more fairly and efficiently.”

MSNBC complained, “It’s not clear that this position will have real power. Ultimately, the president determines who receives pardons, so it’s possible this role will have as much actual authority as Trump’s Diet Coke retriever. But it seems pretty obvious what he’s after with this stunt. Trump has perverted the pardon process, most glaringly with his pardons of violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan 6. And now he has made a sympathetic figure the face of that process.”

Prisoners and their loved ones are wondering how Johnson’s appointment might upend the current clemency system, which has been characterized over the past decade by Byzantine review procedures while thousands of petitions gathered dust in the DOJ Office of Pardon Attorney. Must a commutation petition still begin with a filing with OPA? Will clemency petitions now be routed directly to Johnson’s White House office?

No one knows. However, a Substack blogger on healthcare already has solicited people to contact Johnson to urge that a father and his sons convicted of selling toxic industrial bleach as a fake COVID-19 cure through their online church be pardoned.

New York Times, Trump Names ‘Pardon Czar’ to Advise on Clemency (February 21, 2025)

New York Times, Trump May Name a Woman He Once Pardoned to Be His ‘Pardon Czar’ (February 18, 2025)

Marijuana Moment, Trump Confirms He’s Appointing Former Drug Prisoner He Freed As New ‘Pardon Czar’ (February 20, 2025)

MSNBC, In ongoing stunt, Trump names Alice Johnson his ‘pardon czar’ (February 21, 2025)

Robert Yoho, Surviving Healthcare (Feb 22)

– Thomas L. Root

The Wreckage That Is Clemency – Update for January 24, 2025

January 24, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

THANK A GOLDFISH

When a neighbor’s kid (who is now a successful real estate attorney) was in 7th grade, he entered a science fair project studying exactly how short a goldfish’s attention span might really be. I just recall that his conclusion was that it was pretty short.

For the sake of federal clemency, we should all hope that the American public’s focus is as brief.

President Biden granted clemency a week ago Friday to 2,490 people with drug offenses (including a few CARES Act releasees who were overlooked in the December 12, 2024, commutation of sentence for 1,499 people already on home confinement). That only raised a few of the predictable howls about unleashing violent criminals on the public (the fact than none had committed a violent crime being lost on those few critics).

Biden followed these with pardons on Sunday to members and staff of the House of Representatives January 6th Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and Capitol police officers who testified about the January 6th riot. A chorus of voices from Trump supporters who wanted revenge – as well as a few thoughtful complaints that such pre-emptive pardons were a bad idea as a matter of policy – followed.

The January 19 clemencies included several other less controversial pardons. However, among the pardonees were members of Biden’s own family (which Biden cravenly only had the White House announce on Monday, January 20, after 11 a.m., as Biden sat in the Capitol rotunda awaiting President Trump’s inauguration).

Also in the final moments of his administration, Biden also commuted Leonard Peltier’s life sentence for a 1975 killing two FBI special agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to home confinement. Peltier, 80 years old and in ill health, has always maintained his innocence.

Monday night, Trump said Biden’s pardon of family members, whom he said were under unfair threat of investigation by Trump, “Now with that being said, it sets an unbelievable precedent, it creates poor precedent. But the precedent is unbelievable.”

Trump, however, eclipsed Biden’s “poor precedent” within hours of his own inauguration, issuing a sweeping clemency – consisting of 14 commutations of sentence and about 1,500 unconditional pardons – to people under indictment or convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol.

The J6 clemency grant was “a last-minute, rip-the-bandage-off decision to try to move past the issue quickly, White House advisers familiar with the Trump team’s discussions told Axios, illustrating Trump’s light on his “unpredictable decision-making process” and showcasing his “determination to fulfill a campaign promise to his MAGA base — regardless of political fallout.”

Despite months of the Trump campaign and transition team suggesting that people who engaged in violence on January 6 would not be getting clemency, Trump “vacillated” over whether to give a blanket pardon or a more detailed “targeted clemency.” However, as “Trump’s team wrestled with the issue, and planned a shock-and-awe batch of executive orders Day 1, ‘Trump just said: “F-k it: Release ’em all,”’ an adviser familiar with the discussions said,” according to Axios.

The White House described the blanket pardon as being necessary to “end a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” On Tuesday night, he said, “These people have served years of jail, and their lives have been ruined. They’ve served years in jail, and, if you look at the American public, the American public is tired of it.”

Not really. A Reuters/Ipsos poll the day after the J6 pardons were announced showed 60% of respondents opposed Trump’s action. An Axios focus group of independent voters opposed the action by an 83% majority.

Trump followed those pardons with one for Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road marketplace, described by MSNBC as “one of the biggest illegal drug markets in American history.” The irony is that Trump has spent the past decade campaigning against the scourge of fentanyl and opioid addiction. Of course, the primary difference between the other drug traffickers in federal prison and Ulbricht is that those other guys did not take Bitcoin in payment.

On Wednesday, Trump pardoned two District of Columbia police officers who had been convicted of murder after chasing a 20-year-old man riding a moped. Trump said, ““They were arrested, put in jail for five years because they went after an illegal. And I guess something happened where something went wrong, and they arrested the two officers and put them in jail for going after a criminal.” As it turns out, however, the man was an American citizen and his “crime” was illegally riding his moped on a sidewalk.

The pardon looks suspiciously like a sop to the police unions, who were understandably upset that their President on the previous Monday had pardoned people who had punched, kicked, bear-sprayed and tased police officers defending the Capitol on January 6th.

On Thursday, Trump pardoned nearly two dozen anti-abortion activists who had been convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances. “They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “This is a great honor to sign this.”

So what is the takeaway in all of this? As I explained this week to a CARES Act home confinee months away from release, who was inexplicably omitted from all commutation lists, (1) be sure to assault a cop during your offense; and (2) whatever your crime, be sure to accept payment in Bitcoin.

Condemnation for both Biden’s and Trump’s actions is loud. A Washington Post columnist wrote:

It’s debatable which president’s abuse of the pardon power on Monday — Joe Biden’s or Donald Trump’s — was more damaging. But that’s the nature of tit-for-tat escalations. The public argues about who started it and who did it worse. At the end of the process, constraints on the use of political power are gone and everyone is equally exposed.

Start with Biden’s extraordinary preemptive pardons for select political allies and family members that came down just before Trump’s inauguration. They aren’t even really pardons, because they don’t clear their recipients of specific offenses. They’re grants of immunity…

[T]he breathtaking scope of Trump’s amnesty — including immediate release for even the most violent members of the mob — is not defensible on grounds other than political spite and retaliation. Even his vice president seems not to have expected it. Deterrence against political violence in Trump’s second term in office has been meaningfully weakened. Those on the right inclined toward violence in the next four years have reason to wonder whether they will be punished.

Reason wrote, “Monday was a big day for presidential clemency, but that does not mean it was a good day. Both outgoing President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump used that power in self-interested, short-sighted ways, sacrificing the public interest to benefit political allies and, in Biden’s case, family members.”

Verdict argued, “Yet now, as with so much in contemporary politics, the return of President Donald Trump has changed how we think about the pardon power. The personal is political with Trump, only more so. With a President who views so much through the prism of himself, it is no surprise that we’re now talking about perhaps the most personal form of presidential power at the start of Trump’s second term rather than at the end.”

For now, the presidential clemency power has become solely a political tool, the use of which may completely obliterate its traditional use as a tool of mercy applied to people whose offenses had no political veneer. We can only hope that like goldfish memory, public perception of presidential clemency dims rapidly enough so that it once again is applied to address individual defendants’ situations rather than to score political points or favor political supporters.

Dept of Justice, Office of Pardon Attorney, Clemency Warrants (January 24, 2025)

Reason, President Trump Comments on President Biden’s Pardons: “An Unbelievable Precedent” (January 21, 2025)

White House, Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 (January 20, 2025)

Axios, “F–k it: Release ’em all”: Why Trump embraced broad Jan. 6 pardons (January 22, 2025)

Reuters, Exclusive: Trump starts new term with 47% approval; Jan. 6 pardons unpopular, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (January 21, 2025)

MSNBC, Jan. 6 defendants weren’t the only controversial Trump pardon recipients this week (January 23, 2025)

Washington Post, The Biden-Trump pardons show collapsing executive restraint (January 21, 2025)

Reason, Biden and Trump Show Presidents How To Abuse Clemency (January 22, 2025)

Verdict, Five Ways of Looking at Presidential Pardons (January 22, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

Setting Records, Cleaning Up Messes: The Final Biden Clemencies – Update for January 20, 2025

January 20, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

CLEMENCY IS HIS SWAN SONG

President Joe Biden last Friday broke his own record for the most commutations issued in a single day, shortening the sentences of nearly 2,490 people who – according to the White House – are convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

The White House has trumpeted that with having granted commutations of over 4,000 over the lifetime of his Administration, Biden has exceeded the previous record set by Barack Obama of 1,715. “With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history,” Biden crowed in a statement.

A reasonable observer could easily conclude that the President is more interested in making an entry in his Administration’s record book than in righting a historical wrong.

Many of the 2,590 commutations specify a release date for the recipients of February 17. Three are to be released March 18, and additional tranches are to be cut loose in staggered 30-day periods after that. A significant number had their sentences reduced to a specified term of months, meaning that in many cases the inmates still have significant time to serve.

Twenty-one of the people commuted last Friday were CARES Act releasees who were omitted from the December 12th commutation list without explanation. Several other CARES Act people whose cases clearly fit the profile of person Biden said he wanted to commute but who were omitted from the December 12th list (and whose offenses are not drug related) still hope for commutation prior to noon today.

The White House announced commutations of two more people and pardons of five – including Jamaican black political activist Marcus Garvey (who died in 1940) – in an announcement yesterday morning.

“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars,” Biden said, not mentioning that many of those whose sentences were commuted have been serving time imposed by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Biden was the author, sponsor and principal cheerleader in favor of that legislation.

Some reporter noted as much. One said that with these commutations, Biden “hope[d] to finally correct the historical and devastating blunder of his 1994 Crime Bill that disproportionately affected African Americans.”

This morning, Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to people Biden fears will be targeted for retribution by President-elect Trump due to their involvement in his prosecution for the January 6 riot and classified document cases. Those pardoned include Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, the staff and members of the January 6th Committee, and Capitol and D.C. Metro police officers who testified before the Committee.

Reason, Biden Has Now Issued Far More Commutations Than Any of His Predecessors (January 15, 2025)

The White House, Clemency Recipient List (January 17, 2025)

The White House, Clemency Recipient List (January 19, 2025)

Washington Informer, Biden Seeks to Correct Historical Wrongs with Commutation of 2,500 Sentences (January 17, 2025)

NBC, Biden sets record for most pardons and commutations with new round of clemency for nonviolent drug offenders (January 17, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

A Fortnight of Clemencies? – Update for January 14, 2025

January 14, 2025 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

BIDEN’S LAST WEEK (AND TRUMP’S FIRST ONE)

Although time grows short, the White House has not yet walked back Biden’s promise to issue additional pardons and commutations before he leaves the White House for the last time.

Last week, Truthout.org called on Biden to include in his clemency announcement people serving life sentences under Sentencing Guidelines that have been changed (but the changes not being retroactive). Truthout said, “According to the Sentencing Project, ‘one in seven people in U.S. prisons is serving a life sentence, either life without parole, life with parole or virtual life (50 years or more), totaling 203,865 people’ as of 2021. This is the highest number of people in history — a 66% increase since 2003, the first time the census was taken. Many of these people facing ‘death by incarceration’ were sentenced under guidelines that are no longer used.”

Writing in Forbes, Walter Pavlo last week suggested that consistent with Trump’s desire to trim federal spending, he could double down on First Step Act implementation. Pavlo said, “Trump will likely be frustrated that more has not been done on the First Step Act since his first term in office… The purpose of the First Step Act was to put more minimum-security offenders back home sooner but that has not occurred to the level it could. More prisoners in the community means less reliance on aging facilities that Congress seems unwilling to fund to bring up to acceptable standards.”

Pavlo suggested increased Bureau of Prisons’ use of for-profit halfway houses, besides the network of nonprofit halfway bouses now relied on, and updating the BOP’s security and custody classification system to no longer exclude noncitizens and non-contact sex offenses from camps. As well, he said that the Trump Administration urge Congress to broaden FSA credits to include some of the 68 categories of offenses now prohibited from credits, including some sex offenses, some terrorism charges, threats against government officials and 18 USC § 924(c) gun charges.

Finally, he proposed expanding RDAP eligibility to include those without documented prearrest drug and alcohol use.

Pavlo argued, “The BOP’s challenges are unlikely to be solved through increased funding alone. Instead, the focus should be on fully implementing existing programs like the First Step Act and RDAP, revising outdated policies that hinder efficiency and working with Congress to make targeted legislative adjustments.”

All of this is so, but as a Federal News Network reporter noted a few weeks ago, “I don’t think [the BOP] is high on the Trump team’s agenda, but [it] is a deeply distressed agency.”

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas last week argued that some of the targets of Trump’s desire to save money “are familiar, but one that is never mentioned is the amount of money that could be saved by releasing or not incarcerating nonviolent offenders in the first place… That prison reform has not been on a top 10 list of issues for Republicans is no reason it can’t be added now. Saving money and redeeming a system that no longer benefits the incarcerated or the public is a winning issue.”

Last week, Fox News contributor Jessica Jackson wrote that in 2018, “Trump signed the First Step Act into law, delivering long-overdue reforms that both political parties had failed to achieve at the federal level for decades. It was a landmark moment… Now, as Trump returns to the White House, he has a historic opportunity to finish what he started. Two key reforms he could champion — modernizing federal supervision and expanding second chances — offer a chance to cement his legacy as the leader who transformed America’s approach to justice.”

However, as of right now, the only criminal justice promise Trump has made is to promise to grant clemency to some or all of the 1,580 people charged or convicted of crimes arising from the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill.

Truthout.org, Biden Should Go Beyond Commutations for Death Row and Commute Life Sentences Too (January 8, 2025)

Forbes, How Trump Can Shake Up the Bureau of Prisons (January 6, 2025)

Federal News Network, Countdown to Trump II, and what to expect (December 26, 2024)

Washington Times, Prison and sentencing reform: Saving money in an overlooked place (January 6, 2025)

Fox News, Trump defied the odds to win a criminal justice victory in his first term. Could he do it again? (January 6, 2025)

Washington Post, The fate of nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants depends on Donald Trump (January 6, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

Biden Commutes CARES Act Home Confinement Sentences – Update for December 12, 2024

December 12, 2024 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

BIDEN COMMUTATION WAVE BEGINNING?

Early this morning, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – sent to home confinement under the CARES Act, people who the White House says “were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”

He is also pardoning 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes, whose names are not yet available. The White House said, “These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.”

Biden said in a separate statement,

I am pardoning 39 people who have shown successful rehabilitation and have shown commitment to making their communities stronger and safer. I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences – many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices. These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance.

I will take more steps in the weeks ahead. My Administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances.

Associated Press reported that the second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

Back in the final hours of the first Trump Administration, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion that those persons serving sentences on CARES Act home confinement would be required to return to secure custody once the national COVID emergency ended. The Justice Department subsequently withdrew that opinion, but with the election of President Trump, there has been substantial speculation – such as this, this and this –that the 2021 opinion could be once again adopted along with calls for Biden to preemptively block such a step with a blanket commutation.

Advocacy groups have been calling for a broad range of pardons, including for people on federal death row and with marijuana convictions. Biden has previously issued blanket pardons for those convicted of minor marijuana-related crimes, but those didn’t make any federal inmates eligible for release, because none of the recipients was in prison.

When Biden issued the blanket pardon in October 2022 for people convicted of marijuana possession on federal property, those benefitting were required to make individual applications to the Dept of Justice for the pardon specific to their cases. As of 6 a.m., details of what, if any, steps CARES Act recipients may have to take to obtain their personal commutations is not yet known.

White House, Release on CARES Act Clemency (December 12, 2024)

White House, Statement on CARES Act Clemency (December 12, 2024)

Associated Press, Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency (December 12, 2024)

Wall Street Journal, Biden to Commute Sentences of Around 1,500 People (December 12, 2024)

Dept. of Justice, Memorandum Opinion for the General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (January 15, 2021)

Dept. of Justice, Discretion to Continue the Home-Confinement Placements of Federal Prisoners After the COVID-19 Emergency (December 21, 2021)

Hurwitz, Hugh, Biden’s easy case for clemency: prisoners in home confinement (The Hill, November 26, 2024)

Pavlo, Walter, The Bureau of Prisons Under A Trump Administration (Forbes, November 7, 2024)

Ward, Myah, Clemency groups use Hunter pardon to pressure Biden (Politico, December 5, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Joe Biden Does a Father’s Duty… Now Who Might Be Next? – Update for December 2, 2024

December 2, 2024 lisa-legalinfo Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

BIDEN PARDONS HUNTER… WHO MIGHT BE NEXT?

President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, last night, saving him prison time for gun possession offenses and tax crimes.

I will not listen to criticism for his action, regardless of the fact that the President recklessly claimed last summer he would never do such a thing. What father would not spare his son’s conviction and prison if it was in his power to do so? Even if Joe’s rationale – that no one is ever prosecuted for the 18 USC § 922(g)(3) and 18 USC § 922(a)(6) offenses that Hunter faced, and for his son to be indicted was raw political theater – is bullshit on stilts.

And it is. Somehow Joe omitted mention of Hunter’s tax convictions, those being of a nature and severity that are brought every day. As for the gun offenses, look at United States v. Daniels at Note 6, where a concurring judge chronicles other cases in that Circuit alone where (g)(3) offenses were brought against people who blew a little dope but were not intoxicated when they bought their guns.

Yes, Hunter’s gun offense was pretty pedestrian (but the (g)(3) conviction was probably unconstitutional, as Daniels explains). Still, if I were elected president (an event unlikely to happen), I would pardon any of my kids or siblings or parents or cousins in a heartbeat. It’s family.

In a statement released Sunday, Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son,” Biden said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

On Twitter (now inexplicably called “X”) last night, New York University law professor and clemency expert Rachel Barkow said, “This pardon of Hunter Biden better be the first of a huge flurry of commutations. There are so many cases even more deserving than this one that the Pardon Attorney has recommended granting, and they’re just waiting for Biden’s signature.”

There were others just earlier last week. On Monday, Peaches and Blossom became the 7th and 8th turkeys to be pardoned by Joe Biden in his presidential career. Law professor and clemency expert Mark Osler has noted that presidents could apply lessons from the annual Thanksgiving week event to their clemency practices:

First, it occurs regularly. Turkeys are pardoned every year, not just in the waning days of an administration. Second, decisions are made by objective specialists with the current chairman of the National Turkey Federation… responsible for managing a thorough selection process… Third, there are defined criteria. The finalists are selected based on their willingness to be handled, their health and their natural good looks. Fourth, attention is paid to making sure they thrive after their grant of clemency. After the ceremony, they are sent to Virginia Tech’s “Gobbler’s Rest” exhibit, where they are well cared for… This contrasts sharply with the process of giving clemency to humans… [The] procedure through which clemency is granted is irregular, run largely by biased generalists, devoid of consistent, meaningful criteria, and it does little to ensure success of individuals after their release.

That does not lessen the optimism that in the next 49 days, Biden will hit a home run, pardoning or commuting sentences for everyone from Jack Smith and Merrick Garland to people on death row, CARES Act prisoners and those left behind by the First Step Act’s nonretroactivity.

Democrats and criminal justice reform advocates continue to pressure Biden to use his presidential authority to pardon those currently in federal prison fng from drugs to tax evasion—particularly those awaiting execution for more serious charges. Last week, 54 people who received clemency over the past five presidential administrations asked Biden to be “bold and compassionate during your remaining time in office and grant clemency to the deserving applicants referred to you by the Office of the Pardon Attorney.”

The clemency recipients wrote that they each had received long, unjust sentences before they finally regained their freedom.

Prior to last Monday’s turkey pardoning, the group Prison Policy Initiative blasted Biden for reneging on his campaign promise to end the federal death penalty. “More turkeys have been pardoned from dinner plates in the US than people have been granted clemency from death row,” PPI said in an Instagram post. “Biden’s days left in office are limited, but it’s not too late for him to spare everyone from federal death row (and cement his legacy for the better).”

The Quaker organization Friends Committee on National Legislation said last week that “since 1973 there have been 200 exonerations from death row and over 1,600 people killed, with 50 executions at the federal level.” The group is not asking Biden to pardon all 40 people awaiting capital punishment but instead to commute their sentences to life in prison.

Writing in The Hill last week, former Bureau of Prisons Director Hugh Hurwitz urged Biden to commute the sentences of people currently on CARES Act home confinement. “Now that President-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House,” Hurwitz wrote, “those remaining in home confinement are again concerned that his administration will reverse course and send them back to prison. Only this time, they have been quietly living at home and working in our communities for almost five years. This uncertainty is creating a lot of anxiety among these people and their families… We do not know what a new Trump administration will do, but there is no reason for us to wait and see. Until Jan 20, Biden has the unique power to grant clemency. This group of people has proven to be trustworthy and safe in our society. If ever there was a case for clemency, this is it.”

Whether any of these pressure tactics will be enough to motivate Biden to move on clemency is not clear. But with less than two months left in his presidency, the only real strategy clemency advocates have is to stress how history will view him if he does nothing at all. And that will be effective only to the extent that he cares at all about that.