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December 6, 2020

Discussing clemency activity by Prez Trump for six more weeks seems unavoidable, doesn't it?

As highlighted by this post from last week, I am generally much more interested in thinking about how Prez-elect Biden might reform the clemency process than about how Prez Trump might use the clemency power over his last six weeks in office.  But my news feed these days is overflowing with all sorts of reports and commentary about Prez Trump's possible pardon plans, so I suspect this will have to be an evergreen blog topic in the weeks ahead.

In reviewing some recent pieces, I really liked the last couple sentences in this short NPR commentary headlined "The Truth About Pardons" authored by Scott Simon: "It's sheer speculation as to what other pardons Trump might issue as he leaves office. But a president's personal power to pardon can change lives — and reveal what they value."  I sincere hope Prez Trump is eager to change some lives for the better in this coming weeks, though I will wait to see what Prez Trump does in the coming weeks before reflecting on what his clemency record suggests about his values.  Meanwhile, here are just a few of many other pieces on this topic to recently catch my eye:

From NPR, "In His Final Weeks, Trump Could Dole Out Many Pardons To Friends, Allies"

From Politico, "Trump mulls preemptive pardons for up to 20 allies, even as Republicans balk"

From Prof. Jeffrey Crouch, "Trump and Bill Clinton pardon scandals should help Biden fix a flawed process"

For the most substantial new reporting on this topic, I highly recommend this effective new Daily Beast piece by White House reporter Asawin Suebsaeng.  The piece is fully headlined "Inside the Frantic Push to Get Trump to Pardon…. Everyone: Allies, advocates, and Alice Johnson are on a mad dash to get the president to bestow clemency and ‘mercy’ before Biden takes over."  The full piece highlights how fully fraught these matters now are for so many, and here is a snippet:

For the past month, President Donald Trump’s political allies and friends, as well as various lawyers, have been rushing against the clock to convince him to fulfill a lengthy wish list of pardons and commutations before Joe Biden takes office in late January.  “We’ve been flooded with requests,” said a senior White House official, who added that a lot of the appeals have been nakedly political and partisan, as is expected at the end of a presidency....

But buried elsewhere in the vast clutter of requests and considerations are reams of documents sent by advocates to the White House counsel’s office requesting pardons or clemency for drug offenders and longtime federal inmates who grew up under harsh circumstances and have turned their lives around behind bars.  Behind the scenes, a loose coalition of unexpected allies are sprinting to get the president’s ear and put many of these cases before him and his White House lawyers.  Some are the president’s confidants, MAGA diehards, and Trump advisers.  Others are criminal justice reform advocates who’ve learned to love him. Others have long loathed him and his policies.

On Friday Nov. 20th, Alice Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate whose life sentence was commuted by Trump two and a half years ago, visited the president for a 30-minute meeting, during which she outlined some of the cases she and her allies had already forwarded to the White House for vetting. “It was a very good meeting,” Johnson told The Daily Beast, publicly confirming the discussion for the first time.  “I went to the White House in order to present cases before the president in the Oval Office, for people I know are very deserving people… There are around 30 names that I’ve already sent to the White House counsel.  I talked about some of the individual cases during the meeting with President Trump, but also discussed them collectively, in the sense that they all have outstanding rehabilitation records and outstanding prison records, and none of them pose a danger to the public.”

Johnson said Trump asked questions and expressed concern and receptiveness.  She believes he supports issuing more clemencies this year.  “We are also in the process of vetting and compiling packets for at least 100 more incarcerated individuals,” she said.  “We are in warp speed right now, to get as many through as possible, as quickly as possible.”...

Reform advocate Jason Flom, a well-known record executive and a Democratic donor, said in an interview on Thursday, “This is one of the only issues where there’s some meaningful agreement between the left and the right.  And I’m hoping that because there are conservative groups advocating alongside other organizations for clemency that the president will grant a significant number of them before he leaves office.”

Kevin Ring, president of the nonprofit group Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said, “We’re encouraging everyone to seek clemency at this time.  We know that this time at the end of an administration is the time to do it… We know there are going to be grants that make people scratch their heads and wonder whether that’s the best use of President Trump’s clemency authority. But we hope that for every one of those, there are 10 or 20 grants for people who are serving excessive sentences and deserve to be home.”

A few recent related posts:

December 6, 2020 at 12:52 PM | Permalink

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