Flattery, Politics, Money – It’s What a Pardon Requires – Update for December 11, 2025

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

LESSONS FOR CLEMENCY APPLICANTS – CONTACTS AND MONEY HELP

President Donald Trump’s clemencies continued last week with beneficiaries including former congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, and entertainment venue developer Tim Lieweke, accused of rigging bids for a $375 million basketball arena built for the University of Texas. None had gone to trial yet.

Trump claimed on Truth Social that the Cuellars’ bribery prosecution was the result of his speaking out against former President Joe Biden’s immigration policy. As for Lieweke, the pardon came after his lawyer, former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) (who hosts a Fox News program), sold Trump on the pardon while playing a round of golf with him.

“There’s nothing conventional about Trump’s pardoning,” said Margaret Love, former U.S. pardon attorney. “You don’t know whether he’s got a personal interest in the case, whether [it is] because of the nature of the offence — he’s concerned with bribery and financial crimes convictions.”

This year, roughly 10,000 federal prisoners have filed clemency petitions through the Office of Pardon Attorney. Only 10 of those have been granted. In previous administrations, OPA filtered a select few pardon applications to the president, and presidents only occasionally circumvented that process. With Trump, OPA seems to be where clemency petitions go to die. So how does an inmate get a leg up?

• • First, as Axios reported last week, “serious criminal conduct matters far less than whether the defendant pledges loyalty, flatters the president or aligns with his ideological project.” Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned the week before, wrote a fawning letter calling Trump’s accomplishments “historic” and gushing that “Mr. President, you and I also shared something deeper, a profound love for our countries. We are men of faith, patriots, willing to risk our lives for the safety of our people.”
  • Second, blame Biden. Trump said that Henry Cuellar had been prosecuted by Biden because he objected to Biden’s “open border” policies. The Honduran President complained that his case was brought “only because the Biden-Harris DOJ pursued a political agenda to empower its ideological allies in Honduras…”
  • Third, hire the right people. The Honduran President got Trump buddy Roger Stone to convince the President to issue the pardon. Lieweke had hired Gowdy’s law firm for representation in the criminal case.
  • Fourth, money always helps. Beyond paying people with presidential access, donating to a Trump cause may help. Last April, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak for tax crimes after Walczak’s mother attended a $1-million-per-person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

New York Times columnist Sam Sifton wrote last week that “with Trump, it often comes down to winning him over — or at least his family or closest advisers. And because there are many ways to get in his good graces — donating to his political committees, helping fund the construction of the White House ballroom, having one of his friends vouch for you — there is a cottage industry of lawyers and lobbyists seeking to exploit those avenues.”

Saikrishna Prakash, a University of Virginia law professor who writes about the presidential pardon power, said last week that Trump is “enamored with this power precisely because it’s unchecked.”

Politico, Henry Cuellar will seek reelection as a Democrat after Trump pardon (December 3, 2025)

Wall Street Journal, A Round of Golf Changed Trump’s Tone on the Concert Industry (December 6, 2025)

Wall Street Journal, Trump’s Pardon for Cocaine Juan (December 2, 2025)

Axios, Trump wields pardons as purest form of power (December 3, 2025)

Financial Times, ‘Why are we letting this guy go?’ Donald Trump’s pardons upend US justice system (December 5, 2025)

New York Times, Who Gets a Presidential Pardon? (December 4, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root