Role of the Office of the Pardon Attorney Trump frequently bypassed the
Office of the Pardon Attorney, and on March 7, 2025, fired its leader, Department of Justice career attorney Liz Oyer, and installed political loyalist
Ed Martin in the role. Ed Martin described the rationale for granting pardons as "No MAGA left behind". In April 2025, Oyer testified to the Senate and accused the Justice Department of "ongoing corruption" and that "the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of justice".. On February 2, 2026, it was reported that Martin was considering leaving the Justice Department following conflicts with
Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General.
Creation of 'Pardon Czar' position On February 20, 2025, Trump announced the creation of a new position to recommend executive clemency candidates, and named
Alice Marie Johnson to the role. Johnson, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for nonviolent drug offenses, received a sentence commutation and later a full pardon in Trump's first term, after
Kim Kardashian intervened on her behalf.
Role of lobbyists In addition to pursuing pardons through the Office of Pardon Attorney, the Pardon Czar, and the White House Counsel's Office, some wealthy pardon-seekers have hired politically-connected lobbyists to present their cases directly to Trump, with many echoing claims of political prosecution to win Trump's support. Reflecting concerns about the optics of the pardon process, there have been sporadic attempts by White House staffers to limit access to Trump by advocates for pardon-seekers. Lobbyists have told the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets that fees of $1M are standard. Some would-be pardon recipients have offered success fees of $6M for a successful application. NBC News reported that former U.S. Attorney
Brett Tolman and Washington attorney Adam Katz have played key roles in securing clemency for their clients. Lobbyists
Jack Burkman and
Jacob Wohl accepted $300,000 to lobby for a pardon for fugitive crypto figure
Andean Medjedovic and $960,000 to lobby for a federal pardon on behalf of Joseph Schwartz, convicted for nursing home fraud in April 2025. It was later reported that Schwartz was unhappy with their efforts and hired politically-connected attorney and lobbyist Josh Nass to pursue clemency. Schwartz was granted clemency on November 14, 2025. Nass was later charged with extortion in an apparent connection to the Schwartz pardon; federal prosecutors alleged that Nass hired a convicted racketeer to assault or kidnap Schwartz's son in order to get $500,000 Nass said Schwartz owed him for his pardon work.
Legal boundaries of the pardons The scope of the Trump pardons became a contentious legal issue. Several people who were under investigation in the January 6 Capitol assault were charged in separate cases that came about as a result of those investigations. These separate cases included gun charges, possession of child pornography, and threatening FBI agents. With the mass pardon of the January 6 Capitol assault participants, lawyers for some of those defendants argued that the mass pardons applied to those charges as well, and in several of the cases the Department of Justice attorneys concurred. Some courts accepted this reasoning, but many were skeptical. On November 14, 2025, Department of Justice Pardon Attorney
Ed Martin announced additional pardons for two of the people charged in the separate cases. After the 2025 arrest of Brian Cole Jr. in the pipe bomb attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee the night before January 6, former DOJ prosecutor Ankush Khardori argued that the broad pardon language may apply to Cole, potentially upending prosecution of Cole. In March 2026, Cole's lawyers made a motion making that exact argument in court.
Fake electors plot pardons On November 10, 2025, Department of Justice Pardon Attorney
Ed Martin announced on social media that 77 people alleged to have been involved in the 2020
Trump fake electors plot had been pardoned via proclamation. None of the listed people were facing federal charges at the time, and the proclamation, known as Proclamation 10989, does not affect state charges. Attorneys for a man accused of voter fraud in the 2020 election have argued that the pardon applies to him, even though he is not on the proclamation list. Prosecutors have argued against this interpretation, saying that it is up to the Department of Justice to determine who is eligible for inclusion in the pardon.
Former NFL player pardons Shortly after the 2026
Super Bowl, 'Pardon Czar'
Alice Marie Johnson announced pardons for five former professional football athletes: Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon. All had served time and been released after having been convicted on charges ranging from drug dealing to fraud to counterfeiting more than a decade ago.
Major beneficiaries Trump's pardons and grants of clemency favored political allies and loyalists. On January 20, 2025, Trump issued mass pardons and commutations to people who were prosecuted in the
January 6 United States Capitol attack. On November 9, 2025, U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announced that Trump had signed a proclamation granting pardons preempting future federal prosecutions for 77 people associated with the
Trump fake electors plot to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In April 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had recently said he would "pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval Office".
Public reactions to clemency actions Reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack clemency actions Trump's pardons and commutations of participants in the
January 6 United States Capitol attack were widely condemned by involved officers and police unions. Capitol Police sergeant Aquilino A. Gonell, who was hurt in the attack and retired due to those injuries told the New York Times, "It's a miscarriage of justice, a betrayal, a mockery, and a desecration of the men and women that risked their lives defending our democracy." The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police issued a joint statement condemning clemency for criminals who assault law enforcement officers, but did not explicitly call out the January 6 actions. Notably, the latter group endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election. The National Association of Police Organizations explicitly condemned the clemency actions for individuals who assaulted law enforcement officers on January 6. Federal judges who oversaw or were overseeing January 6-related cases also condemned the actions. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her dismissal of the charges against January 6 defendant John Banuelo's case that no pardon could change the “tragic truth” of what happened that day: "It cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America's sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.” Some Senate Republicans also condemned the pardons and commutations.
James Lankford told CNN, “I think if you attack a police officer that's a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that.” But when Senate Majority leader
John Thune was asked about Trump's clemency actions for the January 6 rioters said, “We're looking at the future, not the past.'
Reactions to other clemency actions More broadly,
The Marshall Project looked at how Trump's second presidency pardon decisions have deviated from the Department of Justice's clemency process as described in the
Justice Manual, especially with respect to input from victims, prosecutors, and judges; remorse; and restitution paid. Others have noted that multiple high-level drug kingpins have received pardons, which stands in stark contrast to Trump's tough-on-drugs justifications for
military strikes on and sinking of alleged drug boats. Trump received criticism for pardoning crypto billionaire
Changpeng Zhao, whose company
Binance entered into a business deal with the Trump family's crypto startup
World Liberty Financial. In response to criticism of his pardon, Trump stated "I don't know who he is". On November 16, 2025,
CBS News aired an interview
Scott Pelley conducted with former Justice Department Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, in which she said that the pardon process now favored the wealthy, and criticizing the pardon of Zhao in particular. == List of recipients of executive clemency from Trump ==