It’s been a busy few months in the world of federal pardons. It started on day one of the Trump administration with more than 1500 people pardoned for their roles in the January 6th Capital riot. And the pardons just keep coming. The past few weeks we’ve seen a spate of controversial clemency grants, including a couple of reality TV stars who were found guilty of defrauding community banks out of tens of millions of dollars, a former nursing home executive whose mother recently attended a 1-million-a-plate fundraiser, and a Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery in what prosecutors called a “cash-for-badges scheme.” The pardons are all legal, but do the optics possibly show a two-tiered system of justice? Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer joins The Excerpt to talk about the stringent rules that most pardon attorneys follow when evaluating clemency requests and why some of Trump's pardons are so troubling.

Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.