Pardon and Punishment – Update for February 19, 2026

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

JUSTICE, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STYLE

Pardons for the Right People:    President Trump last Thursday pardoned five former professional football players — including Super Bowl champions, a Hall of Famer and a Heisman Trophy winner — for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking.

footThe pardons of ex-NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon were announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson.

“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,” Johnson wrote on the social media site X, as she thanked Trump for his “continued commitment to second chances.”

Of course, for the thousands of people serving sentences for drug and violent crimes who do not happen to have been NFL players, the action – which excuses prior criminal conduct because of the athletic prowess of the recipient – only underscores the fact that the price of admission to Trump clemency continues to be fame, fortune, or political affinity with the President.

Nevertheless, writing in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog, Ohio State law professor Doug Berman was a little puzzled by the announcement: “Ever the showman and the sports fan, I am a bit surprised that Prez Trump did not announce these pardons himself, and I am even more surprised that he did not seek to get attention by issuing these pardons in the week leading up to the Super Bowl rather than during the week after when the spotlight has turned away from football.”

Punishment for the Wrong People:      One of Trump’s first executive actions a year ago was to order that 37 death row inmates whose sentences President Biden had previously been commuted to life imprisonment without chance for release be “imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”

US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a preliminary injunction against a plan to transfer the 37 to ADX Florence.  The judge noted that BOP policy allows assignment to the supermax in only two circumstances: when ”placement in other correctional facilities creates a risk to institutional security and good order or poses a risk to the safety of staff, inmates, others, or to public safety” or when an inmate’s status is such that he “may not be safely housed in the general population of another institution.”

The judge said public statements by Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had guaranteed that the men would be transferred to the supermax facility because Trump wanted it, regardless of the BOP designation standards.

“It is likely that the [administrative review ]process provided to Plaintiffs was an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began,” Judge Kelly wrote.  He said Bondi and other officials “made it clear” to BOP that the inmates “had to be sent to ADX Florence to punish them, no matter what result the originally BOP process might have yielded.”

Forgiveness for Favorites:   The Dept of Justice last week moved to dismiss criminal contempt of Congress charges against Trump acolyte Steve Bannon, who served four months in the BOP for the conviction.

Although Bannon has done his time, his petition for certiorari is pending before the Supreme Court. The case relates to Bannon’s refusal to testify before the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition and declining to produce documents requested by the committee.

The DOJ wrote in its motion to dismiss the case, that “[t]he government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.”

The New York Times, Trump Pardons Klecko, Jamal Lewis and Other Former N.F.L. Players (February 12, 2026)

Politico, Judge halts transfer of former federal death inmates to ‘supermax’ prison (February 11, 2026)

Memorandum Opinion, Taylor v. Trump, Case No 25-cv-3742 (DDC, February 11, 2026)

Associated Press, Trump pardons five former NFL players for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking (February 13, 2026)

Brief for the United States, Bannon v United States, Case No. 25-453 (Supreme Court, filed February 9, 2026).

~ Thomas L. Root