President Trump quietly denied nearly 6,000 clemency applications this month from people who mostly lacked political connections and had waited patiently in a queue while he awarded pardons and commutations to allies who had skipped the line.<\/p>\n
That raft of clemency grants did not materialize. Instead, Mr. Trump doled out fewer than 20 pardons on July 3 to Clean Air Act scofflaws along with a political donor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thousands of other petitioners were left waiting.<\/p>\n The denials were announced inside the Justice Department in a letter dated July 14 from Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, to United States attorneys across the country.<\/p>\n The letter, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated that Mr. Martin\u2019s office began issuing the rejections on July 10.<\/p>\n Mr. Martin did not provide much explanation for why the applications were denied. Rather, he cited a section of the law<\/a> outlining how the president can either affirmatively reject clemency petitions or merely allow denial recommendations from the attorney general to go into effect without weighing in.<\/p>\n The letter did not indicate whether Mr. Trump had reviewed and rejected the applications.<\/p>\n A White House official said that there was never a plan to issue 250 pardons for July 4. It was only an idea floated by staff, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversations. The official said that Mr. Trump makes all final decisions related to clemency.<\/p>\n Kiersten Pels, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the denials were part of an effort to reduce a backlog of more than 20,000 clemency requests received last year. (About 3,600 of the rejected applications were filed in 2025, but nearly 2,000 were submitted in 2024 and more than 300 were filed before that.)<\/p>\n The rejected requests \u201cfailed to present a compelling case for clemency,\u201d Ms. Pels said in a statement. She added that \u201cby issuing clear and timely decisions, the department is ensuring a consistent process that provides meaningful responses to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n About the same time the letter was sent, Mr. Martin\u2019s office posted on its website lists containing the names of more than 300 people<\/a> whose applications for pardons had been denied on July 10 and more than 5,600 people<\/a> who were denied their requests for commutations.<\/p>\n Nearly 530 people had been denied pardons<\/a> or commutations<\/a> in January, according to the website.<\/p>\n Presidents have unfettered authority to issue pardons, which eliminate nearly all effects of federal criminal convictions, and commutations, which wipe away prison sentences and grant other relief. It is not unusual for them to reject batches of applications.<\/p>\n Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his final days in office denied nearly 6,000 pardons<\/a> and granted thousands of commutations<\/a>. While he pardoned his son Hunter Biden<\/a> and other family members and officials<\/a>, many of his clemency grants went to nonviolent drug offenders<\/a> or others who met Justice Department criteria meant to identify and reward those who had demonstrated remorse and were unlikely to reoffend.<\/p>\n By contrast, Mr. Trump\u2019s approach to clemency has almost completely eschewed the Justice Department\u2019s process<\/a> for vetting and recommending clemency applications like those that were rejected this month.<\/p>\n Instead, his clemency decisions have largely awarded allies and supporters \u2014 such as nearly 1,600 people<\/a> charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 \u2014 or people who have money to pay well-connected lobbyists<\/a> and lawyers.<\/p>\n