"The Trump administration's clemency drive is coming under scrutiny after the justice department this week replaced pardons posted online that bore strikingly similar copies of Trump's signature with others that are distinctively variable. The corrections came after online commenters seized on the similarities in the president's signature granting full and unconditional pardons to seven men, including to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon, on 7 November."
"Administration officials have blamed technical errors and staffing issues for the apparent oversight and insisted to the Associated Press that Trump had originally signed all the pardons himself. Chad Gilmartin, a justice department spokesperson, said the website was updated after a technical error where one of the signatures President Trump personally signed was mistakenly uploaded multiple times due to staffing issues caused by the Democrat shutdown."
"There is no story here other than the fact that President Trump signed seven pardons by hand and [the Department of Justice] posted those same seven pardons with seven unique signatures to our website, Gilmartin said in a statement to the Associated Press, referring to the latest wave of clemency Trump has granted in recent weeks. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote in an email that Trump signed each one of these pardons by hand as he does with all pardons."
Online pardons bearing similar copies of the president's signature were replaced on the Justice Department website after commenters flagged the resemblance. Seven full and unconditional pardons dated 7 November for figures including Darryl Strawberry, Glen Casada and Michael McMahon were involved. Administration officials attributed the issue to technical errors and staffing shortages, saying one signature file was mistakenly uploaded multiple times. A Justice Department spokesperson said the president had personally signed each pardon and the website was updated. A White House spokesperson reiterated that each pardon was hand-signed and criticized media coverage, citing autopen concerns about a predecessor.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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