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Associated Press
7 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Trump's latest pardons benefit an array of political allies and public figures
WASHINGTON (AP) — A governor who resigned amid a corruption scandal and served two stints in federal prison. A New York Republican who resigned from Congress after a tax fraud conviction and who made headlines for threatening to throw a reporter off a Capitol balcony over a question he didn't like. Reality TV stars convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes. All were unlikely beneficiaries this week of pardons, with President Donald Trump flexing his executive power to bestow clemency on political allies, prominent public figures and others convicted of defrauding the public. The moves not only take aim at criminal cases once touted as just by the Justice Department but also come amid a continuing Trump administration erosion of public integrity guardrails, including the firing of the department's pardon attorney and the near-dismantling of a prosecution unit established to hold public officials accountable for abusing the public trust. 'He is using pardons to essentially override the verdicts of juries, to set aside the sentences that have been imposed by judges and to accomplish political objectives,' said Liz Oyer, who was fired in March as the pardon attorney after she says she refused to endorse a recommendation to restore the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson, a Trump supporter. 'That is very damaging and destructive to our system of justice.' To be sure, other presidents have courted controversy with their clemency decisions. President Gerald Ford famously pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich just hours before the Democratic president left office. More recently, President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family. But the pardons announced Wednesday are part of a pattern of clemency grants that began in Trump's first term and has continued in the current one in which bold-face names, prominent supporters and defendants whose causes are championed by friends time and again have an edge on ordinary citizens who lack connections to the White House. In 2020, for instance, he pardoned allies convicted in the Russia election interference investigation that shadowed his first term as well as his son-in-law's father, Charles Kushner, who was later named ambassador to France. On his first day back in office, he pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, using his clemency powers to undo the massive prosecution of the unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. Twice indicted by the Justice Department, and entangled in criminal investigations in the White House and in his post-presidency life, Trump has long conveyed public suspicion about prosecutorial power and found common cause with politicians — including on the other side of the aisle — he sees as having been mistreated like he believes he was. In February, for instance, the Republican president pardoned former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich after having earlier commuted his 14-year sentence on political corruption charges. Blagojevich, he said, 'was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people I had to deal with.' The most recent pardon beneficiaries include former GOP New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan. The former Marine and FBI agent resigned from Congress the following year and served eight months in prison. Grimm tried to reenter politics in 2018 but lost a primary for his old district. Others include former Republican Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose once-promising political career was cut short by an investigation into gifts and favors from state contractors. Rowland was convicted and imprisoned a second time for conspiring to hide his work on political campaigns and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. The White House also announced pardons for rap artist NBA YoungBoy on gun-related charges and TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, famous for 'Chrisley Knows Best,' a reality show that followed their family and extravagant lifestyle that prosecutors said was boosted by bank fraud and hiding earnings from tax authorities. The couple was convicted in 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents. The latest pardons unfold as Trump has departed from the norms and protocols of the clemency process and as the Justice Department has signaled a tweaked approach to public corruption and white-collar fraud. The department, for instance, has long had a pardon attorney tasked with sifting through applications from defendants and recommending clemency to the White House for those seen as having served their debt to society and accepted responsibility for their crimes, including drug offenders serving long sentences and not generally known to the public or connected to the powerful. In place of Oyer, the fired pardon attorney, the administration installed Ed Martin, a Trump loyalist who briefly served as interim U.S. attorney in Washington. He has already pledged to scrutinize pardons that Biden issued on his way out of the White House and has said he would take a 'hard look' at two men who are serving long prison terms for leading a conspiracy to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Meanwhile, the department's vaunted public integrity section, created in the post-Watergate era to investigate and prosecute public officials for abusing their powers, has been dramatically slashed, whittled down to just a handful of lawyers. The section endured an exodus of prosecutors after Justice Department leaders demanded the dismissal of a corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams so he could assist in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The pardons, said Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer, fit 'within the fold of his presidency, where he uses a lot of his power either for retribution or reward rather than for just kind of pure policy-making. We have to understand the pardons in that framework.'
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Making News With More Pardons And Commutations
During his first term, President Donald Trump issued a total of 238 pardons and commutations (143 pardons and 85 commutations). Like presidents before him, the majority of those receiving commutations had served a significant part of their prison term while most all of those pardoned had completed their sentence years ago. In fact, most executive orders for commutations come in the final days of the administration, not at the beginning. In terms of raw numbers, Trump's 238 clemency actions in his first term rank lower compared to other recent presidents, particularly Barack Obama. However, his total number of pardons was higher than those of Bush and Clinton in their respective first terms. In terms of total clemency actions, Trump's record is relatively modest compared to some of his predecessors. Here's a rough comparison: In March 2025, President Donald Trump dismissed Liz Oyer, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney. Oyer had held the position since 2022, overseeing the review of federal clemency requests and advising the president on potential pardons. Following Oyer's departure, Ed Martin Jr., a former interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, was appointed as the new pardon attorney. Martin has indicated plans to scrutinize pardons issued by the previous administration, emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability in the clemency process. Now, Trump has turned his attention to granting commutations and pardons to high profile prisoners. He is even issuing pardons to those convicted but have not even started their prison sentence, something extremely rare. On January 20, 2025, Trump issued a sweeping series of pardons and commutations for individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. This action was one of his first acts upon returning to the White House. In addition to granting pardons, President Trump directed the Department of Justice to seek the dismissal of all pending cases related to the Capitol riot. Since then, he has started to look at individual cases that he believes represent overreach by both the US Attorney's Offices and federal judges. On May 27, Trump announced that he would grant full pardons to reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who had been convicted in 2022 on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. The Chrisleys were sentenced to 12 and 7 years in federal prison, respectively, and began serving their sentences in January 2023. Julie won an appeal for a resentencing but U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross sentenced her again to 7 years, then ending her chance at freedom. Their convictions stemmed from allegations that they used false documents to secure over $30 million in loans, which they used to fund a lavish lifestyle. Last week, Trump issued a pardon to a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges and had yet to even enter prison. Jenkins, a long-time supporter of Trump, was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison. "Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. The New York Times has reported that individuals are lining up contacts in Trump's inner-circle to lobby for them. Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer stated in an interview on NBC News that Trump's actions on pardons are troubling. 'Granting pardons to people in this manner threatens to upend ongoing prosecutions by the Department of Justice. It also threatens to delegitimize the prosecutorial institutions that we have historically relied on.' There is no shortage of people to pardon and Trump will most certainly consider more in the future including that of his long time confidant Steve Bannon and Trump's current adviser on economic issues Peter Navarro. Both Navarro and Bannon completed their prison terms last year. With Trump's newly found penchant for crypto currency, he could look to pardon someone like FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried. There are also big names in politics like former congressman George Santos and former senator Robert Menendez who are both heading to prison soon. In business he could look to someone like Elizabeth Holmes to make a statement about aggressive prosecutions as she serves over 11 years in prison. Others have speculated that with a former convicted felon pardoned by Trump during his first term and now activist, Alice Johnson, as Pardon Czar, that the pardons will keep on coming. Trump seems to be using his executive powers to reshape prosecutions brought by US Attorneys and sentences handed down by federal judges. Trump has wasted no time in calling out prosecutors and judges appointed by Joe Biden. Some are thinking that Trump, keen to do govern by executive order, has found that pardons can set the agenda for a Department of Justice and judiciary that he wants.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Justice Dept fires head of pardon office
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Friday fired the head of the U.S. Justice Department office that handles presidential pardon requests, the official said in a social media post. Liz Oyer served as pardon attorney since 2022, a career Justice Department position. Oyer was fired "effective immediately," according to a memo she shared on LinkedIn, which cited Trump's executive authority under the U.S. Constitution.
Reuters
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump Justice Dept fires head of pardon office
WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Friday fired the head of the U.S. Justice Department office that handles presidential pardon requests, the official said in a social media post. Liz Oyer served as pardon attorney since 2022, a career Justice Department position. Oyer was fired "effective immediately," according to a memo she shared on LinkedIn, which cited Trump's executive authority under the U.S. Constitution. here.
