I Ran the Pardon Office and Saw Trump Upend the Clemency System
Former DOJ attorney Larry Kupers explains how the system has changed since the Obama administration
When Larry Kupers went to work for the Justice Department in 2014, he didn’t see it as joining the enemy, even though he’s spent his career as a federal and public defender fighting against attorneys who worked for the agency. By working as a lawyer in the Department of Justice during the Obama administration— specifically, in its Office of the Pardon Attorney — Kupers had the opportunity to significantly reform the process by which presidents grant clemency to convicted criminals.
But Kupers’ outlook changed quickly once Trump came into office. Under the current administration, the agency process for recommending and vetting parsons has been largely jettisoned in favor of a top-down approach run by the Executive Office of the President, often at the direction of Trump himself. As a result, while people like Rod Blagojevich who have powerful administration allies now get sprung early from prison, hundreds of thousands of less-well-connected inmates hoping for a second chance find their petitions languishing. For Kupers, that dissonance proved too much: In 2018, while running the pardon office, he decided to leave the DOJ. Kupers told GEN about the…
