2026-08-13T06:00:05-04:00 / 福克斯新闻
独家首发：福克斯新闻 内部邮件显示，在前总统乔·拜登离任前宣布的赦免裁决公布后，司法部官员一度手忙脚乱，试图厘清部分裁决的具体覆盖范围并纠正其中的错误——这一 broader 赦免程序遭到了前美国赦免律师、一名联邦法官和其他官员的批评。
这些记录通过《信息自由法》由“保护公众信任”组织（PPT）获取，并分享给了福克斯新闻数字频道。
在一次沟通中，涉及一名因一系列 crack 可卡因贩毒案被定罪的职业惯犯，检察官们困惑于拜登是否同时减刑了该男子另一项未被明确列出的235个月刑期。这一问题促使一名赦免副律师给出“最合理的解读”，同时承认拜登1月17日的多起减刑中有“许多”绕过了司法部的常规赦免办公室审查，未经过常规程度的复核。
在另一起事件中，司法部赦免律师办公室（OPA）对亨特·拜登的赦免毫不知情，后来不得不更正一份错误声明，将其描述为“服刑完毕后”获得赦免——但实际上亨特·拜登当时尚未被判刑，也永远不会被判刑，此次赦免是完全无条件的。官员们还花费数天时间，研究如何认证赦免文件并提交给法院。
霍利就迪伦·鲁夫赦免事宜怒斥拜登赦免律师
2022年3月15日，美国总统乔·拜登在白宫印第安条约厅签署《2022年综合拨款法案》，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯、众议院议长南希·佩洛西（D-加利福尼亚州）和参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默（D-纽约州）陪同左右。(路透社/莉亚·米利斯)
另有一起事件，美国地区法官丹尼尔·霍夫兰在审查了十多起北达科他州的减刑案件后要求作出解释，称既未咨询量刑法官、检察官，也未联系受害者——“连一通电话都没有”。他还质疑多起赦免的合法性，指出这些赦免与他所认同的赦免所秉持的“第二次机会”理念不符。
“整个程序与对外宣传的说法不符，”前弗吉尼亚州司法部长杰森·米亚雷斯告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，“对外描述与内部实际情况之间存在天壤之别。”
“这描绘了一幅令人不安的画面：赦免程序是由政治和仓促驱动的，而非这类特殊行政赦免行为所要求的审慎审议，”PPT的通讯主任亚历克萨·穆特维利斯补充道，“司法部赦免办公室的邮件显示，拜登最后用自动签名笔发起的赦免潮如此草率仓促，混乱甚至波及了最受关注且最具争议的对象：他自己的儿子亨特。”
拜登政府曾公开向美国民众保证，总统“非常非常认真”地对待赦免事宜，当时的白宫新闻秘书卡琳·让-皮埃尔称，相关案件由其团队提交给总统作最终决定。
司法部告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，赦免官员并未对拜登12月12日减刑的约1500人进行逐一审查。这些人是由监狱管理局（BOP）和司法部认定为新冠疫情期间根据《关怀法案》在家中监禁的服刑人员，随后被集体赦免。监狱管理局此前已在将他们安排在家中监禁前对相关人员进行了评估，但赦免官员并未在12月12日的赦免决定前，对大多数受刑人的具体罪行或案件历史进行单独审查。
曾被贴上“社区危险分子”标签的惯犯在拜登自动签名赦免后获释
与此同时，司法部内部在拜登1月17日的赦免决定公布后几乎立刻出现了担忧。《华尔街日报》在赦免决定公布约两周后报道称，时任美国赦免律师莉兹·奥耶在1月18日的一封内部邮件中告诉美国检察官，拜登的赦免行动“未与赦免律师办公室协商，也几乎未与司法部协调”。
1月17日拜登大规模减刑后的第11天，即1月28日，弗吉尼亚州东区第一助理美国检察官玛雅·宋就法院提出的一项减刑疑问联系了赦免律师办公室，拜登似乎对克里斯托弗·达蒙·斯宾塞作出了减刑。赦免名单将他与2003年案件的案号并列，但斯宾塞还有另一桩2011年的案件，当时被判处235个月监禁。宋询问拜登的减刑是否也适用于该刑期。
赦免副检察官基拉·吉莱斯皮在数小时后回复称，将减刑同时适用于两个案号是“最合理的解读”，并为造成的混淆道歉。
“1月17日获得减刑的许多案件都未经过我们办公室的审查，”吉莱斯皮写道，“因此我们现有的数据未像我们通常希望的那样经过仔细复核。”
邮件显示，亨特·拜登的赦免事件后也出现了类似的混乱。赦免律师办公室正式告知检察官，12月1日的赦免“未通过我们办公室的申请流程处理”，奥耶后来在内部确认该办公室确实毫不知情。
“享有特权”的亨特·拜登因父亲的赦免获释，抨击特朗普的赦免权
2024年12月4日，亨特·拜登在圣巴巴拉离开一家Arby’s快餐店时展露笑容。这是他被父亲赦免后首次被拍到照片。(福克斯新闻数字频道/The Image Direct)
赦免律师办公室当时的意外反应已被公开报道，但新获取的邮件提供了奥耶本人的内部证实。当一名司法部公共事务官员告知她，政客计划报道该办公室“措手不及”，并询问这一描述是否有误时，奥耶回复：“我好奇消息来源的情况，但这个描述是准确的。”
赦免律师办公室随后不得不更正自己的通知。12月2日，高级赦免副检察官罗莎琳德·萨金特-伯恩斯告诉检察官，此前的通知错误地将亨特·拜登描述为“服刑完毕后”获得完全无条件赦免，称该表述“属于失误”，并为造成的混淆道歉。
几天后，负责亨特·拜登加州案件的联邦法院称，辩方提交的赦免文件缺乏认证，且未从适当的行政机构收到，检察官遂向赦免律师办公室求助。内部邮件显示，赦免律师办公室官员随后联系了法院书记员并准备了认证文件。
截至12月6日上午，奥耶写道此事似乎已解决：“我认为现在已经解决了。”
“亨特·拜登”X账号引发的离谱言论遭共和党嘲讽
2026年7月16日，前司法部赦免律师莉兹·奥耶在国会山出席代理美国司法部长托德·布兰奇的参议院司法委员会提名确认听证会的第二天宣誓就职。(肯·塞德伍德/法新社 via 盖蒂图片社)
一名司法部官员将这些赦免后的失误（他们称属于轻微且易于纠正的问题）归咎于拜登白宫未能向司法部提供完整且及时的赦免相关信息，称司法部人员被迫在极短的时间内确定受影响人员并发出通知。
领导拜登政府时期赦免律师办公室的奥耶在给司法部公共事务官员的邮件中指出，130多年来，历届总统都依靠该办公室提供“中立建议和专业知识”。奥耶的一名代表在给福克斯新闻数字频道的一份声明中重申了她此前的公开言论：她未就拜登政府末期的“某些赦免决定”被咨询，包括对亨特·拜登的赦免，她认为这是对赦免权的滥用。
据《华尔街日报》报道，在1月17日的约2490名赦免对象中，仅有258人获得了司法部的推荐。该报报道称，白宫纳入了一些司法部明确拒绝的人员，同时遗漏了数百名司法部曾推荐的人员。
刑事司法专家警告：内布拉斯加州枪击案嫌疑人、阿拉巴马州毒品逮捕犯均提前获释，拜登的赦免计划缺乏适当审查
(多森警察局、美联社/埃文·武奇、奥马哈警察局和凯文·卡特/盖蒂图片社)
福克斯新闻数字频道审查的司法部内部记录并未明确OPA之外的完整流程，包括如何挑选个别受赦免人员、审查了哪些案件信息、谁进行了逐案审查以及最终名单的修改是如何作出的。
司法部表示，两党总统都曾行使宪法赋予的赦免权而未咨询司法部，且其规章并未要求总统使用传统的赦免办公室流程。
前印第安纳州众议员斯蒂芬·拜尔因2023年内幕交易定罪获得特朗普全面赦免
前赦免律师玛格丽特·洛夫表示，1月17日的邮件仍反映出与传统程序的重大背离。
“赦免律师办公室的邮件显示，最终赦免对象的名单并未通过常规赦免流程提交，而常规流程中本应由司法部专业人员进行审查，”洛夫告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，“这在我的从业经历中是前所未有的——至少除了特朗普总统之外，他也不使用常规流程。”
“虽然对公众而言，赦免程序始终有些不透明，但这一程序似乎甚至对司法部内部负责的工作人员都保密，”洛夫补充道，“这些案件来自哪里，又是如何被选中的？我不知道，显然赦免办公室的工作人员也不知道。”
科罗拉多州民主党正式谴责波利斯州长关于蒂娜·彼得斯的减刑决定
根据福克斯新闻数字频道审查的内部记录，地区法院法官霍夫兰对12月12日减刑决定的异议当时已公开。他在12月18日的邮件中抄送了多家北达科他州新闻机构，但FOIA记录显示了赦免律师办公室内部对他的投诉的处理情况。
次日上午，一名高级副手将邮件转发给奥耶并询问是否需要采取进一步行动，奥耶回复：“唉。谢谢你告诉我。”司法部告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，找不到司法部回应霍夫兰解释要求的记录。
司法部总部。(德鲁·安格尔)
霍夫兰点名了两名诈骗超过60名农民和农业企业1140万美元、诈骗一家银行2850万美元的受赦免人员，称二人未提交任何支持减刑的证据，并警告此类减刑削弱了公众对司法系统的信心和对法治的尊重。霍夫兰表示，他的担忧不仅限于这两起诈骗案，还包括他审查的其他贩毒减刑案件，他称这些案件均未涉及“低级、非暴力毒品罪犯”。
“从未有任何联邦检察官、受害者，或我本人作为量刑法官事先接到过关于这些减刑的通知——连一通电话都没有，”霍夫兰写道，要求赦免律师办公室解释这些案件是如何调查的、为何减刑，以及为何未咨询任何直接了解案件的人员。
福克斯新闻审查的记录显示，拜登离任前的赦免行动中，司法部的提前通知情况各不相同。在拜登12月23日对联邦死刑犯的赦免决定之前，官员们提前致电了相关的美国检察官。12月22日上午，副检察长办公室官员布拉德利·温斯海默告诉奥耶，他“正在等待批准开始通知死刑案件的美国检察官”。几分钟后，他写道：“现在开始通知。”
此后数小时内，温斯海默报告称：“所有美国检察官均已收到通知。有两人提出了反对，但都对致电表示感谢。”
亚历克·谢梅尔是福克斯新闻数字频道的政治记者，原籍北卡罗来纳州夏洛特，现居住在华盛顿特区-巴尔的摩都会区。
Biden clemency blitz left DOJ scrambling as many commutations bypassed normal vetting, emails show
2026-08-13T06:00:05-04:00 / Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: Justice Department (DOJ) officials scrambled after former President Joe Biden’s end-of-term clemency grants were announced, trying to determine what some decisions actually covered and correcting errors in others — part of a broader clemency process that drew criticism from former U.S. pardon attorneys, a federal judge and other officials, internal emails show.
The records were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) and shared with Fox News Digital.
In one exchange, involving a career offender convicted in a series of crack-cocaine trafficking cases, prosecutors were left asking whether Biden had commuted a separate 235-month sentence for the man that was not explicitly listed. The question prompted a deputy pardon attorney to offer the “most sensible reading,” while acknowledging that “many” of Biden’s Jan. 17 commutations had bypassed the agency’s normal pardon-office vetting and did not undergo the typical level of review.
In another episode, the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) was caught off guard by Hunter Biden’s pardon and later had to correct a notice that incorrectly described him as receiving it “after completion of sentence” — even though he had not yet been sentenced, never would be, and the pardon was full and unconditional. Officials also spent days working through how to authenticate and transmit the pardon to the court.
HAWLEY ERUPTS AT BIDEN PARDON ATTORNEY OVER DYLANN ROOF CLEMENCY PUSH
U.S. President Joe Biden is flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as he signs into law the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022” in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House in Washington, March 15, 2022.(REUTERS/Leah Millis)
Separately, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland asked for an explanation after reviewing more than a dozen North Dakota commutations and saying that neither sentencing judges, prosecutors nor victims had been consulted — “not even” by telephone. He also questioned the validity of several pardons, noting they were out-of-step with his view of the second-chance rationale associated with clemency grants.
“The process didn’t match the public sales pitch,” former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told Fox News Digital. “There is a Grand Canyon gap between the public description and the internal reality.”
“This paints a troubling picture of a pardon process driven by politics and haste rather than the careful deliberation such extraordinary acts of executive clemency demand,” added PPT’s communications director Alexa Moutevelis. “The Justice Department pardon office’s own emails show the final Biden auto-pen blitz was so clumsy and rushed that the chaos extended even to the most high-profile and controversial of all: his own son, Hunter.”
The Biden administration had publicly sought to assure Americans that the president took clemency “very, very seriously,” with then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying cases were presented to the president by his team for a final decision.
DOJ told Fox News Digital that clemency officials did not conduct an individualized review of the slate of roughly 1,500 people whose sentences Biden commuted Dec. 12. Instead, they were granted clemency as a group after being identified by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and DOJ as people serving sentences on home confinement during COVID under the CARES Act. BOP had previously assessed the recipients before placing them on home confinement, but clemency officials did not separately review most recipients’ individual offenses or case histories before the Dec. 12 grants.
REPEAT OFFENDER LABELED ‘DANGER TO THE COMMUNITY’ WALKS FREE AFTER BIDEN AUTOPEN CLEMENCY
Meanwhile, concerns inside DOJ surfaced almost immediately after Biden’s Jan. 17 grants were announced. The Wall Street Journal reported roughly two weeks after they went out that then-U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer told U.S. attorneys in a Jan. 18 internal email that Biden’s clemency action “was not carried out in consultation with the Office of the Pardon Attorney and there was little coordination with the Department.”
The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a CIA officer who provided Top Secret intelligence to China was sentenced to prison.(Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Eleven days after Biden’s Jan. 17 mass commutations, on Jan. 28, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya Song of the Eastern District of Virginia contacted OPA after a court raised a question about a commutation Biden seemingly awarded to Christopher Damon Spencer. The clemency list identified him alongside the docket number for a 2003 case, but Spencer also had a separate 2011 case in which he had been sentenced to 235 months in prison. Song asked whether Biden’s commutation applied to that sentence as well.
Deputy Pardon Attorney Kira Gillespie responded hours later that applying the commutation to both docket numbers was the “most sensible reading” and apologized for the confusion.
“Many of the cases that were granted commutation on January 17 were not vetted through our office,” Gillespie wrote, “and so the data we had available was not reviewed as carefully as we would ordinarily hope it to be.”
The emails show a separate episode of confusion following Hunter Biden’s pardon. OPA formally told prosecutors that the Dec. 1 pardon “was not processed via application through our Office,” and Oyer later confirmed internally that the office had been caught off guard.
‘PRIVILEGED’ HUNTER BIDEN, SPARED BY DAD’S PARDON, BLASTS TRUMP’S CLEMENCY POWER
Hunter Biden flashes a big smile as he leaves an Arby’s in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. This is the first time that the son of President Joe Biden has been photographed since he was pardoned by his father.(The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
The OPA’s surprise was reported publicly at the time, but the newly obtained emails provide internal confirmation from Oyer herself. When a DOJ public-affairs official told her that Politico planned to report the office had been “taken by surprise” and asked whether that characterization was wrong, Oyer replied: “I’m curious about the sourcing on #1, but it’s accurate.”
OPA then had to correct its own notification. On Dec. 2, Senior Deputy Pardon Attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns told prosecutors that an earlier notice had incorrectly described Hunter Biden as receiving a full and unconditional pardon “after completion of sentence,” saying the phrase “was included in error” and apologizing for the confusion.
Days later, prosecutors turned to OPA after the federal court handling Hunter Biden’s California case said his defense-submitted pardon lacked authentication and had not been received from the appropriate executive agency. Internal emails show OPA officials then tracking down the court clerk and preparing a verification.
By the morning of Dec. 6, Oyer wrote that the matter appeared finished: “I think this is now resolved.”
EYEBROW-RAISING CLAIM FROM ‘HUNTER BIDEN’ X ACCOUNT DRAWS GOP MOCKERY
Former Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer is sworn in during the second day of acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be attorney general, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 16, 2026.(Ken Cedeno / AFP via Getty Images)
A DOJ official attributed the post-grant errors, which they characterized as minor and easily corrected, to the Biden White House failing to provide the department complete and timely information about the commutations, saying DOJ personnel were forced to identify affected individuals and provide notice on extremely short timelines.
Oyer, who led the OPA under Biden, which describes itself as the DOJ office responsible for receiving, reviewing and investigating clemency applications and providing recommendations to the president, noted in an email to a DOJ public affairs official that presidents have relied on the office for more than 130 years for “neutral advice and expertise.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, a representative for Oyer reiterated her public comments about not being consulted over “certain clemency grants at the end of the Biden administration, including the pardon of Hunter Biden, which she believes was a misuse of the pardon power.”
Only 258 of the roughly 2,490 Jan. 17 clemency recipients had been recommended by DOJ, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the White House included some individuals the department had specifically rejected, while leaving out hundreds whom the DOJ had recommended.
Criminal justice expert warns Biden’s clemency program lacks proper vetting after the Nebraska shooting suspect and Alabama drug arrest involve early releases.(Dothan Police Department, AP/Evan Vucci, Omaha Police Department and Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
The internal DOJ records reviewed by Fox News Digital do not establish the full process used outside OPA — including how individual recipients were selected, what case information was reviewed, who conducted any case-by-case vetting and how final changes to the lists were made.
DOJ indicated that presidents of both parties have exercised their constitutional clemency authority without consulting the department, and its regulations do not require presidents to use the traditional pardon-office process.
FORMER INDIANA REP STEPHEN BUYER RECEIVES FULL PARDON FROM TRUMP FOR 2023 INSIDER TRADING CONVICTION
Former Pardon Attorney Margaret Love said the Jan. 17 emails nevertheless reflected a significant departure from that traditional system.
“The OPA email indicates that the names of the final clemency recipients did not come through the regular pardon process where they would have been vetted by Justice Department professionals,” Love told Fox News Digital. “That would be unprecedented in my experience — at least for any president other than President Trump, who also does not use the regular process.”
“While the clemency process is always somewhat opaque as far as the public is concerned, this process seems to have been secret even from the responsible staff at the Justice Department,” Love added. “Where did the cases come from, and how were they selected? I don’t know that and evidently neither did the staff in the pardon office.”
COLORADO DEMOCRATS FORMALLY CENSURE GOV POLIS OVER TINA PETERS COMMUTATION
District court judge Hovland’s objections to the Dec. 12 commutations were aired publicly at the time, according to the internal records reviewed by Fox News Digital. He copied numerous North Dakota news organizations in his Dec. 18 email, but the FOIA records reveal how his complaint was received inside OPA.
When a senior deputy forwarded the email to Oyer the following morning and asked whether further action should be taken, Oyer responded: “SIGH. Thanks for letting me know.” DOJ told Fox News Digital it could find no record of the department responding to Hovland’s request for an explanation.
The Department of Justice headquarters.(Drew Angerer)
Hovland highlighted two recipients who had defrauded more than 60 farmers and agricultural businesses of $11.4 million and a bank of $28.5 million, saying neither had presented evidence supporting a commutation and warning that the grants eroded confidence in the justice system and respect for the rule of law. Hovland said his concerns extended beyond the two fraud cases to other drug-trafficking commutations he reviewed, none of which he described as involving “low-level, non-violent drug offenders.”
“None of the federal prosecutors, victims, or myself as the sentencing judge were ever contacted about these commutations beforehand — not even a telephone call,” Hovland wrote, asking OPA to explain how the cases had been investigated, why the sentences were commuted and why nobody with direct knowledge of the cases had been consulted.
The records reviewed by Fox show that advance DOJ notification varied across Biden’s late-term clemency actions. Ahead of Biden’s Dec. 23 federal death-row commutations, officials made advance calls to the affected U.S. attorneys. On the morning of Dec. 22, Deputy Attorney General’s Office official Bradley Weinsheimer told Oyer he was “awaiting clearance to start making capital case USA notifications.” Minutes later, he wrote: “Starting notifications now.”
Shortly thereafter, within hours, Weinsheimer reported that: “All USAs now have been notified. Pushback by a couple, but all were appreciative of the call.”
Alec Schemmel is a Politics Reporter for Fox News Digital who is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina but now resides in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore Metro Area.