Liz Oyer:
Well, Trump’s use is very different. I will say it’s impossible to talk about Trump’s use of the pardon power without acknowledging that some of the pardons that President Biden granted were ones that, frankly, raised questions about the legitimacy of the pardon power and why this power exists.
However, President Biden, for the most part, relied on the Department of Justice to make recommendations and granted clemency to people who did not have political connections, although there were some very notable and significant exceptions.
In the current administration, there is no path forward that we know of right now for ordinary people to be considered for clemency. And the other thing that’s really striking and shocking is that the president is granting clemency to individuals who owe tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution and fines and other financial penalties.
And it’s never been done by any other president.
