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With only a handful of exceptions, Osler said, Trump's clemency grants have gone to "people he knows or learned about from Fox News." On a single day in February, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 11 people, all of whom had
one thing in common: either their cases were promoted on Fox News or they had an inside connection to the president.
Trump also prefers to disregard the advice of the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Department of Justice, said American University professor Jeffrey Crouch, who has written extensively on the presidential pardon power. That office is responsible for vetting the
thousands of clemency requests the government gets every year.
For over a century, presidents have relied on the recommendations of that office. Not so for Trump, who prefers to make his own decisions. A
Washington Post investigation found that most of Trump's grants of clemency "have gone to well-connected offenders who had not filed petitions with the pardon office or did not meet its requirements."
"He has largely ignored the little guy, or anonymous offenders who apply for presidential mercy through the usual channels," Crouch told NPR. "Under President Trump, the old back door to clemency — getting the president's attention somehow — seems to have become the new front door."
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