The Oversight Project obtained damning internal emails this week from the Justice Department revealing a high-level understanding in the Biden administration that the autopenned commutations issued on Jan. 17 in the former president’s name were legally flawed.
In addition to showcasing former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer’s legal concerns, the emails provided by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin’s office reveal that the Biden administration apparently misled the nation about the violent criminal nature of the individuals who received commutations.
‘You should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading.’
Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “This represents the first written black and white evidence of fundamental disagreement in the Biden camp as it relates to the pardon strategy writ large.”
“Obviously, this is particularized to the warrants for the commutations of people they never should have let out of jail — but it’s the senior-most career lawyer in the DOJ, like [Merrick] Garland’s top guy, basically saying, ‘WTF are you guys doing? This is illegal,'” said Howell.
Howell suggested further that the potentially unlawful nature of the commutations is cause to keep imprisoned those whose sentences were commuted and who are scheduled to be released.
For those felons who received clemency and are no longer behind bars, the Oversight Project president said, “They should rearrest them.”
A Jan. 17, 2025, statement attributed to Biden characterizes the recipients of the commutations as felons “convicted of non-violent drug offenses.”
The emails obtained by the Oversight Project reportedly show that Weinsheimer, a 34-year department veteran, took issue with this apparent lie, noting that “in the communications about the commutations, the White House has described those who received commutations as people of non-violent drug offenses. I think you should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading.”
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“I do not think it is close to accurate to describe all the clemency recipients as those convicted of non-violent drug offenses,” apparently added the former DOJ official.
‘I have no idea if the President was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions.’
The 2,490 federal inmates who received the commutations are a motley crew of thugs, including murderers and violent drug dealers.
Among them:
- Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, whose drug-trafficking offenses led to the death of a police officer;
- Russell McIntosh, a thug who gunned down a woman who threatened to expose his drug enterprise along with her 2-year-old child;
- Adrian Peeler, sentenced for conspiracy to commit murder involving the slaying of an 8-year-old witness and his mother; and
- Plaze Anderson, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples who was personally involved in two murders, an attempted murder and kidnapping, and obstruction of justice.
Weinsheimer added that based on limited review, the DOJ identified 19 inmates under consideration for clemency who were “highly problematic,” as that list included “violent offenders, including those who committed acts of violence during the offense of conviction, or who otherwise have a history of violence such that it is misleading to suggest they are non-violent drug offenders,” the email showed.
Sixteen of those 19 problematic felons received grants of clemency in Biden’s name, and their commutations were characterized as “progress towards justice” by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I have no idea if the President was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions,” Weinsheimer wrote. “The Department was largely excluded from the process, which we otherwise opposed.”
The emails revealed that not only were the commutations opposed internally and not as advertised — they were likely unlawful.
Blaze News has reached out to Weinsheimer and the ACLU for comment.
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Three clemency warrants were apparently issued on Jan. 17. The second of the three warrants awarded clemency to criminals for “offenses described to the Department of Justice.”
Weinsheimer and others at the DOJ seemingly had trouble making heads or tails of the warrant and its legality, as no offenses were actually described.
The emails show a fight to get a list of the criminals’ offenses — specifically those for which they were receiving commutations — amid mounting questions from courts, congressional staff, and the criminals’ families.
‘Because no offenses have been described to the Department from the President, the commutations do not take effect.’
In a Jan. 18 email to his DOJ colleagues at the Pardon Attorney’s Office as well as to the White House Counsel’s Office, Weinsheimer noted, “I think the language ‘offenses described to the Department of Justice’ in the warrant is highly problematic and in order to resolve its meaning appropriately, and consistent with the President’s intent, we will need a statement or direction from the President as to how to interpret the language.”
Weinsheimer suggested that the “clearest and least problematic way” of curing the apparent legal error was for Biden to explain his meaning and to provide a “list as to each inmate listing the offenses that are covered by the commutation.”
The DOJ official identified three other ways to deal with the apparent legal error.
The DOJ could interpret the warrant to apply to “all federal offenses for which the inmate is under sentence” — an interpretation the Bureau of Prisons was reportedly likely to use. Weinsheimer warned, however, that such an interpretation would likely result in the commutations of sentences for violent felons, which Biden may not have wanted, and would render the qualifying language “superfluous.”
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Alternatively, the DOJ could interpret “offenses described to the Department” on the basis of “the U.S. Sentencing Commission Spreadsheets” — the nature and contents of which are presently unclear. According to the emails, Weinsheimer again expressed concern, suggesting that “it is a guess as to what is meant by the warrant language, and [that interpretation] goes beyond the four corners of the warrant, something we do not normally do.”
The final way Weinsheimer identified was not to act on the commutations: “Because no offenses have been described to the Department from the President, the commutations do not take effect.”
‘It’s time for legal action based on autopen.’
Weinsheimer noted further that “describing offenses to the Department is a condition precedent to the commutations being effective, and without description, they do not take effect. I have no idea what interpretation the incoming [Trump] Administration will give to the warrant, but they may find this interpretation attractive, as it gives effect to the language but does not go beyond the four corners of the warrant.”
The Oversight Project noted that while “pardoning via category is already an illegal delegation of a nondelegable power,” that Weinsheimer email “illustrates that the government officials charged with executing the president’s delegated orders on January 17, 2025, Warrant 2 had no idea what the president actually ordered.”
Howell told Blaze News that the revelations in the emails provide the administration and lawmakers with an “angle to attack.”
Howell said that President Donald Trump, who has already declared all of the autopen pardons null and void, can now say, “We’re not honoring these commutations. You know who agrees with us? Biden’s DOJ.”
“Again, for the first time, we have written evidence of the disagreement,” said Howell. “So there’s no reason to sit around and wait. It’s time for legal action based on autopen.”
Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.
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Author: Joseph MacKinnon
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