Steven Wasserman, President of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys (NAAUSA) – representing the interests of Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) working in the 94 U.S. Attorney Offices – issued the following statement regarding President Biden’s term-ending pardons and commutations of 2,500 federal drug traffickers and President Trump’s pardons and commutations of convicted January 6th rioters:
“The President has clear authority to issue pardons and commutations to those convicted of crimes in this nation. While NAAUSA recognizes and respects this broad authority, we are concerned it is increasingly becoming abused for political purposes and to usurp the legislative process to affect policy outcomes not enshrined in law,” NAAUSA President Steve Wasserman said.
“Historically, the presidential pardon authority was exercised only in cases of manifest injustice or other compelling and extraordinary circumstances. Until the last several administrations, Presidents had traditionally exercised this authority sparingly and only after a thorough review of the merits of each individual grantee. NAAUSA strongly believes that this is the appropriate standard to apply when considering pardons and commutations. Unfortunately, the latest rounds of presidential pardons do not meet this standard,” Wasserman explained.
“It is clear that many of the 2,500 people who were pardoned or received clemency from President Biden were convicted of serious drug trafficking offenses, which at least in some cases involved the possession of firearms to facilitate these offenses,” Wasserman continued.
“It should be noted that many convicted drug offenders, particularly those previously convicted of trafficking in crack cocaine, have been eligible for sentencing adjustments for penalty disparities consistent with previously amended statutes and sentencing guidelines. In fact, thousands of offenders have already received sentence reductions to account for these disparities. The recent commutations and the reasons advanced for them are simply inconsistent with the current law and contrary to the known and generally accepted harms caused by dangerous narcotics, and the traffickers who push them in our communities,” Wasserman furthered.
“Drug traffickers who are convicted of federal offenses are not non-violent criminals. The federal government does not prosecute street level dealers or drug users; those are crimes typically left to state and local authorities to prosecute. Yet the drug trade continues to tear apart communities,” said Wasserman.
“Similarly, President Trump’s pardons and commutations of offenders who participated in a riot to prevent the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021, represents an abuse of the pardon authority. It is clear that none of the pardons granted today were vetted through the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney to evaluate the merits of individual cases, which is the function of that office. Rather, the pardons appear to have been conducted as an act of political theater and grounded in false claims that those convicted for rioting at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were prosecuted for political reasons rather than for the serious offenses for which they were duly convicted and sentenced. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Wasserman continued.
“As NAAUSA has done across multiple administrations, both Democrat and Republican, we will speak out when the exercise of the pardon authority fails to uphold the principles of respect for the rule of law, protecting the safety of the public and achieving justice. NAAUSA believes that the recent exercise of this authority by both President Biden and President Trump fails to uphold these principles,” Wasserman concluded.
