Trump DOJ reviewing Biden pardons

The Department of Justice is reviewing pardons doled out under former President Biden, citing concerns about whether Biden himself was making decisions about clemency power, a senior administration official confirmed to The Hill.

The official told The Hill that pardon attorney Ed Martin will lead an independent review to determine if “unelected staffers” took advantage of Biden when it came to pardons and commutations.

“The American people deserve to know the extent to which unelected staffers and an autopen acted as a proxy president due to the incompetence and infirmity of the previous president,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement. “President Trump was elected to restore the integrity and transparency of the office, and answering the question of who was actually running this country for four years is well within the president’s rights.” 

Martin was originally Trump’s choice to serve as the top prosecutor in the District of Columbia. His nomination was dropped in the face of Republican opposition in the Senate over his ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The pardon review comes as fresh reporting and new books, including “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” have reignited debate about Biden’s mental acuity while in office and whether he experienced cognitive decline.

It also comes as Jesse Jackson Jr., Michael Cohen and others who were denied pardons under Biden have called on Trump to re-examine the cases of those who did not have their applications approved during the previous administration.

A Biden spokesperson told The Hill that the former president and his team thoughtfully reviewed requests for pardons and commutations and pointed to Biden issuing more than 2,500 individual acts of clemency. Biden allies have more broadly pushed back on claims that the former president was not carrying out his duties while in office.

Biden issued more than 80 pardons during his four years in office, and he commuted the sentences of thousands of people. The vast majority of his acts of clemency were granted to nonviolent offenders, including numerous individuals who had been charged with nonviolent drug offenses.

But some of his more controversial uses of the pardon power came toward the end of his term. Biden granted a full pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, who had been found guilty on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. Hunter Biden had been a political target for Republicans throughout his father’s time in office.

The 46th president also granted blanket pardons in the final moments of his term to five family members and several former government officials who had been the targets of political attacks from Trump and his allies.

Reuters, which first reported the investigation, reviewed an email from Martin saying he was directed to launch the probe, though did not specify by whom. The outlet reported that Martin would focus on the family pardons as well as death row clemencies.

On his last day as interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Martin said that he would give particular scrutiny to pardons given to Biden family members.

“They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did,” Martin said at a press conference last month.

Martin is not only the pardon attorney, but was also tapped to lead the Weaponization Working Group, a new task force established by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Trump’s actions have further exacerbated questions about presidential clemency power and how it can disproportionately benefit those with connections to the administration.

Trump during his first term used clemency powers on political allies such as Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

Trump also pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants on his first day back in office this year.

Updated 2:23 p.m.