Thourough review of the current state and notable leader of the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney

Bloomberg Law has this effective new article on DOJ’s Pardon Attorney and the work of her office.   I recommend the lengthy piece in full, and here are just a few snippets:

When Liz Oyer, the first known former public defender to lead the Justice Department’s pardon office, arrived in April 2022, she moved in a collection of 22 framed photographs of women serving life sentences. Oyer then commissioned a formerly incarcerated sketch artist to display around 350 copies of his black-and-white profile portraits of fellow inmates he’d originally drawn in the prison yard….

Converting her wing of a drab federal complex into a museum of compassion is one of multiple ways Oyer, 45, has tried maneuvering within strict boundaries to transform the functions and stature of a unit that’s felt out of place in a department led primarily by prosecutors. She reports up to a deputy attorney general’s office filled with career prosecutors who can reject her suggestions to grant clemency before they reach the White House. “I wasn’t sure as somebody who was coming from a public defense background and not having worked in DOJ previously how it would be for me in this building,” said Oyer, who was also previously a partner at global law firm Mayer Brown. “And it’s really turned out to be a wonderful opportunity that has exceeded my expectations.”

Although Oyer has told allies during an active public speaking campaign that she’s working to elevate her office’s influence in broader DOJ policy discussions, some advocates see President Joe Biden’s limited embrace of clemency thus far (13 pardons, 124 commutations) as a telling sign. “The metaphor is pretty strong that we’re talking about people who are literally confined, and there’s a way in which Liz is confined by the structure of this process,” said Mark Osler, a leading clemency scholar and law professor at the University of St. Thomas.

The outcomes of the petitions the office endorses take on heightened stakes in the president’s final guaranteed year in office. If Biden loses re-election in November, he’d have a chance to follow the model of past presidents in signing most of their clemency grants on their way out. But a Trump victory would portend a setback to Oyer’s efforts. In Trump’s prior term, his aides set up an informal system of bypassing the DOJ by welcoming those with access to go directly to the White House.

Trump has also campaigned on promises to pardon the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, and he has said that he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself, leading to speculation that he would do so if he’s convicted in one of the two federal indictments he’s now facing. Asked how her office might fare in a potential second Trump administration, Oyer said, “This is not a political office. I’m not a political appointee.” She added that “the office will continue to function at a high level regardless of what happens outside” it.

Presidential election aside, Oyer has won praise from even the office’s past critics for her efforts to increase transparency, such creating easier-to-read application forms and holding a speaking tour at federal facilities to instruct inmates on how to file.

“For many years I think the office of the pardon attorney was seen as a place where commutation petitions went to disappear,” said Mary Price, general counsel of the organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which has advocated for a broadly revamped pardon office. “The opaque nature of the office has always disturbed advocates and obviously people who are seeking a commutation or a pardon.” Oyer’s transparency in the role has been “terrific,” Price said.

Her efforts can only go so far, however. “At the end of the day, it’s not their decision; it’s not Liz Oyer’s decision,” Price said. “It’s President Biden’s decision, and it remains to be seen how much impact the office will have.”