"I mean, there were dozens of people who received clemency in addition to the January 6th folks. I was not consulted about any of those decisions. I learned about all of them when they popped up in the news."
"President Trump, just hours after being sworn in, granted a blanket pardon to nearly 1,600 supporters involved in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Over the next two months, Trump commuted the sentences of or wiped the slate clean for dozens of high-profile convicts, among them the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and the ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich."
The Office of the Pardon Attorney faced significant disruption under the Trump administration. Head Liz Oyer, a former public defender leading the office since 2022, was excluded from clemency decisions despite her staff's responsibility for reviewing thousands of offender cases. Trump granted blanket pardons to January 6 participants and commuted sentences for high-profile convicts including Ross Ulbricht and Rod Blagojevich. Oyer learned about these decisions through news reports rather than official channels. The administration subsequently pressured her office to restore gun rights for individuals with prior convictions, including actor Mel Gibson, circumventing the traditional clemency review process.
#presidential-clemency #trump-administration #pardon-process #january-6-pardons #government-oversight
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