Pardon Industry Grinds On Although Trump’s Not Signing – Update for August 27, 2025

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PARDON OUR MESS

Senior Dept of Justice officials were left scrambling to interpret sweeping clemency orders that former President Joe Biden approved for thousands of federal prisoners in his final days in office, and they criticized the White House for falsely portraying the releases as limited to “nonviolent” offenders, according to internal emails revealed last week.

The records show that former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer raised alarms immediately after Biden issued three autopen-signed warrants on Jan. 17, covering nearly 2,500 federal prisoners.

In a January 18th message to the White House and the DOJ Pardon Attorney, Weinsheimer wrote that one warrant granting clemency for “offenses described to the Dept of Justice” was so vague it could not be lawfully carried out.

Weinsheimer suggested that Biden provide “a list as to each inmate listing the offenses that are covered by the commutation.” He said Biden needed to clarify the “meaning of the warrant language” so the DOJ could implement it “in the manner intended by the President.”

Weinsheimer also pushed back against White House statements that the clemency recipients were only “non-violent drug offenders,” according to the emails. “In communication about the commutations, the White House has described those who received commutations as people convicted of non-violent drug offenses,” Weinsheimer wrote. “I think you should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading.”

The clemency list included a prisoner who had killed a mother and her 2-year-old child to protect his drug business, another whose enforcer tortured an informant with a butane torch, and a Gangster Disciples member implicated in multiple murders and kidnappings.

Despite Weinsheimer’s warning, the White House promoted the mass commutations as relief for “non-violent drug offenses” and as the largest clemency action ever.

Biden later said he approved broad categories of inmates, leaving details on how to apply those standards to staff. The revelations come amid multiple probes by the Trump administration into Biden’s use of his autopen – a machine that automatically signs the President’s name to documents – for key decisions.

Meanwhile, President Trump – who at the start of his second term was as busy as Biden ever was with a clemency pen– has not granted a pardon or commutation in almost three months.

Trump granted multiple pardons every month from January through May (and, of course, did a massive clemency grant on Inauguration Day for the January 6^th rioters). You may remember that at the time, Trump’s pardon of 1,500 J6ers was described in news accounts as a “last-minute, rip-the-bandage-off decision.”  In fact, one White House advisor said that as Trump’s team wrestled with the issue, “Trump just said: ‘F -k it: Release ’em all.’”

However, despite rumors to the contrary, Trump has gone “full stop” on commutations and pardons since the end of last May.

At the time, media reports said that more clemency grants were expected “in the coming days.” So what happened?

Writing in Sentencing Law and Policy last week, Ohio State law professor Doug Berman wondered whether some of the pundit criticism around the last group of grants may have had some impact on how Trump is thinking about clemency action.

No one can be sure, but the pardon industry continues apace, with reports still being published about some people spending millions to buy access to the President for clemency. Last week, I had two prisoners separately say that the rumor mill reports a big commutation/pardon push in a month. I consider that to be myth. With a major push against supposed gangs rampaging in Washington, DC, Trump is not likely to think this is a good time to let some people out of prison.

Bloomberg Law, How a $30 Million Pardon Scheme Failed Before It Got to Trump (August 18, 2025)

New York Times, Flattery, Lobbyists and a Business Deal: Crypto’s Richest Man Campaigns for a Pardon (August 9, 2025)

Washington Examiner, Biden ignored DOJ warnings over legally flawed autopen pardons (August 19, 2025)

Axios, “F–k it: Release ’em all”: Why Trump embraced broad Jan. 6 pardons (January 22, 2025)

New York Post, Biden DOJ ripped White House over clemency grant to ‘non-violent offenders’: ‘Stop saying that because it is untrue’ (August 19, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root