Elizabeth Oyer
speaker
19 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Elizabeth Oyer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
There is a process that is in place and has been in place for a very long time for applying for a presidential pardon.
And the reason this process exists is to ensure that the pardon power is not totally politicized and corrupted in the manner that is happening now.
There is an office, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which is dedicated to reviewing and vetting applicants for pardons.
Individuals from around the country who are seeking presidential pardons apply through the office, wait their turn for their application to be vetted,
and the office makes a very thorough and comprehensive recommendation in every single case to the president.
Those are ordinary Americans who are going through that process, and many of them are actually very deserving of the relief that's provided by pardons.
They include individuals who are sentenced under mandatory minimum laws that are now defunct, that no longer exist.
Many of them are serving life sentences in prison, and many of them have demonstrated that they have
earned a presidential pardon through exemplary conduct and character in years and years that have passed since their convictions.
All of that has fallen by the wayside under the current administration.
There is no process that's being followed, and it appears to require some sort of inside connection or access or willingness to pay to be able to obtain the benefit of a presidential pardon.
What, if anything, is illegal even for a president?
Well, unfortunately, the pardon power is very unconstrained.
The president does have the constitutional power to pardon anyone that he chooses.
And for that reason, it's very important that this process is followed so that it's not totally corrupted in the way that it is now.
The Department of Justice has a comprehensive, detailed set of guidelines in place that it follows or is supposed to follow in recommending pardons to the president.
And I can tell you that there is not a single person who has received a pardon from President Trump who meets those criteria that apply in ordinary times.
And President Trump has appointed a pardon attorney who has demonstrated that he does not feel bound by those decades and decades of guidance that have always applied.
Ed Martin is the first political appointee ever to occupy the position of pardon attorney, which has historically always been occupied by a career employee of the Department of Justice.
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