Internal Justice Department emails indicate that officials scrambled to interpret and correct numerous clemency grants issued by former President Joe Biden in the final days of his term. The records, obtained by the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with Fox News Digital, suggest that many of these commutations bypassed the department's normal vetting procedures.
In one instance concerning a crack-cocaine trafficking case, prosecutors questioned whether Biden's commutation extended to a separate 235-month sentence not explicitly listed. A deputy pardon attorney suggested the "most sensible reading" but acknowledged that "many" of the Jan. 17 commutations had not undergone the typical review by the Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA).
Further complicating matters, the OPA was reportedly caught off guard by Hunter Biden's pardon. Officials later had to correct a notice that had inaccurately stated he received it "after completion of sentence," despite him not having been sentenced at the time. The department spent days working to authenticate and transmit the pardon to the court.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland also raised concerns after reviewing more than a dozen North Dakota commutations. He stated that neither sentencing judges, prosecutors, nor victims had been consulted, even by telephone, and questioned the validity of several pardons, noting they deviated from the rationale behind second-chance clemency.
"The process didn’t match the public sales pitch," former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told Fox News Digital. "There is a Grand Canyon gap between the public description and the internal reality."
Alexa Moutevelis, PPT's communications director, described the situation as "troubling," suggesting the pardon process was driven by "politics and haste" rather than deliberation. She added that the chaos extended to Hunter Biden's pardon, which the OPA had not processed through its office.
The Biden administration had publicly stated that the president took clemency "very, very seriously." However, DOJ informed Fox News Digital that individualized reviews were not conducted for the roughly 1,500 individuals whose sentences Biden commuted on Dec. 12. These individuals were granted clemency as a group after being identified by the Bureau of Prisons and DOJ as serving sentences on home confinement during COVID under the CARES Act. While the Bureau of Prisons had assessed recipients for home confinement, clemency officials did not separately review most individual offenses or case histories before these grants.
Concerns surfaced internally almost immediately after the Jan. 17 grants. Then-U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer reportedly stated in a Jan. 18 email to U.S. attorneys that Biden's clemency action "was not carried out in consultation with the Office of the Pardon Attorney and there was little coordination with the Department."
On Jan. 28, an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia contacted the OPA regarding a commutation for Christopher Damon Spencer, whose clemency list entry was tied to a 2003 case. However, Spencer also had a separate 2011 case with a 235-month sentence. Deputy Pardon Attorney Kira Gillespie responded that applying the commutation to both cases was the "most sensible reading," admitting that "Many of the cases that were granted commutation on January 17 were not vetted through our office... and so the data we had available was not reviewed as carefully as we would ordinarily hope it to be."
Confusion also followed Hunter Biden's pardon. The OPA formally notified prosecutors that it was not processed via their office. Oyer later confirmed internally that the office had been taken by surprise. The OPA subsequently had to correct its Dec. 2 notification to prosecutors, stating that the phrase "after completion of sentence" was included in error.
Prosecutors also faced issues when the federal court handling Hunter Biden's California case indicated his defense-submitted pardon lacked authentication. Internal emails show OPA officials worked to resolve the matter by tracking down the court clerk and preparing a verification.
A DOJ official attributed post-grant errors, which they characterized as minor and correctable, to the White House failing to provide complete and timely information, forcing DOJ personnel to identify affected individuals on short timelines.
Oyer, who led the OPA, noted in an email that presidents have historically relied on the office for "neutral advice and expertise." A representative for Oyer stated that she believes Hunter Biden's pardon was a "misuse of the pardon power."
According to reports, only 258 of the roughly 2,490 clemency recipients on Jan. 17 had been recommended by DOJ. The White House reportedly included individuals the department had rejected and omitted hundreds whom DOJ had recommended.
Former Pardon Attorney Margaret Love commented that the Jan. 17 emails indicated a significant departure from the traditional system, calling it "unprecedented" for any president other than Donald Trump, who also did not consistently use the regular process. Love expressed uncertainty about how cases were selected and vetted, as the OPA staff themselves apparently did not know.
Judge Hovland's objections to the Dec. 12 commutations, which he had publicly aired by copying news organizations, were met with a simple acknowledgment within the OPA. He highlighted two recipients who defrauded farmers and a bank of millions, stating no evidence supported their commutation and warning of eroded confidence in the justice system. He also noted that none of the prosecutors, victims, or he as the sentencing judge were consulted.
DOJ indicated that presidents from both parties have exercised clemency authority without consulting the department, and its regulations do not mandate using the traditional pardon-office process. However, internal records also show that advance notification varied significantly. For instance, ahead of Biden's Dec. 23 federal death-row commutations, officials made advance calls to affected U.S. attorneys.