During his tenure as president of the United States (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021), Donald Trump granted executive clemency to 237 individuals charged or convicted of federal criminal offenses, using his clemency power under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. Ordinarily, all requests for executive clemency for federal offenses are directed to the Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) in the U.S. Department of Justice for review; however, Trump frequently bypassed the OPA, and the majority of his executive clemency grants were made to well-connected convicts who did not file a petition with the OPA or meet the OPA's requirements. Overall, Trump granted less clemency than many of the modern presidents.
Of the pardons and commutations that Trump did grant, the vast majority were to persons to whom Trump had a personal or political connection, or persons for whom executive clemency served a political goal. A significant number had been convicted of fraud or public corruption. The New York Times reported that during the closing days of the Trump presidency, individuals with access to the administration, such as former administration officials, were soliciting fees to lobby for presidential pardons.
Background
The U.S. president's power of clemency arises from Article II of the United States Constitution. Clemency "may take several forms, including pardon, commutation of sentence, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve", with the two most commonly used forms being a pardon or commutation. A pardon is an official forgiveness for an acknowledged crime. Once a pardon is issued, all further punishment for the crime is waived. The president can only grant pardons for federal offenses. When the president commutes a sentence, it reduces the severity of a sentence without voiding the conviction itself; for example, a commutation may reduce or eliminate a prison term, while leaving other punishments intact. The power of clemency is "one of the most unlimited powers bestowed on the president by the Constitution."
Trump's use of executive clemency
For 125 years, the key adviser to the president on clemency has been the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) which normally reviews all requests for pardons. Trump often bypassed the OPA, and, unlike previous presidents, made the majority of his grants to executive clemency to "well-connected offenders who had not filed petitions with the pardon office or did not meet its requirements." Ultimately, of the 237 grants of clemency by Trump, only 25 came through the Office of the Pardon Attorney's process (which at the end of Trump's presidency had a backlog of 14,000 applications); the other clemency recipients came to Trump's attention through an ad hoc process at the Trump White House that benefited clemency applicants with money or connections to Trump allies, friends, and family members. Most of Trump's pardons and commutations were granted to people with personal or political connections to him.
Compared to other presidents, Trump granted clemency at low rates, with the bulk coming later in his term. Of Trump's grants of clemency, 84% were made in his last fiscal year in office, with 144 out of his 237 grants of clemency being granted on his last night in office; the list was "assembled so hastily that it contained inaccurate information about some cases." ' Legal experts raised concerns that Trump was "relying on his personal connections rather than the Justice Department's established review process for finding convicts deserving of clemency." A late December 2020 analysis by Harvard Law School's Jack Goldsmith determined that "seven of the 94 Trump grants came on recommendation from the pardon attorney" and "at least 84 out of 94 Trump pardons had a personal or political connection to the president." On February 19, 2020, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy requested information on the process used by Trump in deciding to grant clemency to 11 people the preceding day. In response to the criticism of his bypassing of the OPA, Trump said that he is the "chief law enforcement officer of the country."
Former Justice Department official and Mueller investigation prosecutor Andrew Weissmann noted that the language of Trump's pardons varied, ranging from a broad pardon of Michael Flynn to narrower pardons for several others, including Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, which Weissmann argued created "windows of opportunity" to prosecute individuals who had been narrowly pardoned.