Who Gets a Pardon in Trump's America — and Why?

A crypto billionaire convicted of laundering money walks free after his company enriches the president's family by billions. A congressman expelled for defrauding voters gets his slate wiped clean for staying loyal. A tax fraudster owing investors $700 million never repays a dime before receiving clemency. These aren't isolated instances— they're a pattern. On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper is joined by Liz Oyer, former head of the DOJ's Office of the Pardon Attorney, and Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at Campaign Legal Center, to break down how President Trump has reshaped executive clemency into a marketplace. Oyer draws on her firsthand experience reviewing pardon applications to explain how the traditional, merit-based process has been sidelined, while Fischer lays out three distinct categories of abuse — reward pardons, corrupt pardons, and brokered pardons — each backed by real cases of donors, loyalists, and lobbyists cashing in. Together, they explore what recourse remains, from proposed legislation like the No Payoffs for Pardons Act to the limits of congressional oversight, including a sobering look at what's lost when clemency serves power instead of justice.Episode Highlights:2:46 – How have executive clemency powers been used by President Trump?3:11 – Can clemency give deserving people a real second chance?5:16 – How is a presidential pardon supposed to work?6:32 – Are there any legal limits on who a president can pardon?7:35 – How has President Trump turned pardon power into a reward system?9:17 – What is a reward pardon?12:59 – Did a $1 million donation really buy a nursing home executive's clemency?15:28 – Why did an expelled, unrepentant congressman get pardoned anyway?18:47 – How do wealthy individuals use brokers for pardons?23:14 – Could legislation actually stop this corruption?27:25 – Is America left with a two-tiered system of justice?28:01 – What effect does President Trump’s abuse of the pardon power have on applicants without money or connections?Host and Guests:Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.Liz Oyer is an experienced attorney and justice advocate. She most recently served in the Department of Justice as United States Pardon Attorney (April 2022 to March 2025), overseeing the Office of the Pardon Attorney. In that role, Liz was responsible for reviewing applications from individuals across the country seeking pardons and commutations of sentence and preparing recommendations for the President concerning the exercise of his constitutional clemency power.Liz’s tenure as Pardon Attorney was focused on making second chances through clemency available to all deserving Americans without consideration of status, resources, or politics. Liz and her team completely overhauled the clemency application process to make it more accessible, transparent, and user-friendly, including streamlining and improving the application forms for the first time in decades. Liz conducted extensive community outreach and education, including visits to federal prisons around the country. During her three years as Pardon Attorney, Liz and her team made recommendations to the President in over 15,000 clemency cases, prioritizing those involving overly harsh sentences imposed under outdated laws and policies.Brendan Fischer is Director of Strategic Investigations, working to support legal actions, policy reform and public accountability by exposing how money influences politics and providing stakeholders with the information needed to protect the freedom to vote.Brendan brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of law, investigative journalism and democracy reform. Prior to his current role, he served as Deputy Executive Director at the investigative watchdog group Documented, and before that, he built and ran Campaign Legal Center's Federal Reform program, where he directed legal strategies to address dark money, illegal coordination and foreign interference. He earned his J.D.