DOJ raised legal concerns over Biden’s last-minute clemency pardons

New documents and communications between Biden White House staff and career officials at the Justice Department prompted scrutiny of the legality of former President Joe Biden’s thousands of last-minute pardons.

The Oversight Project shared documents obtained from the Trump DOJ with Fox News Digital showing that a career prosecutor warned Biden’s inner circle that the administration’s pardon process was unorthodox and legally troubling.

In the most scrutinized e-mail, then-Assistant Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer wrote a group email to several executive office staff members on Jan. 18 asking questions about the more than 2,500 pardons.

“[T]he White House has described those who received commutations as people convicted of non-violent drug offenses. I think you should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading,” Weinsheimer said.

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“As you know, even with the exceedingly limited review we were permitted to do of the individuals we believed you might be considering for commutation action, we initially identified 19 that were highly problematic,” he continued.

He cited convicts Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, who were included in the clemency grants, and noted the DOJ received “voluminous” objections from victims’ families and law enforcement as the men had been “sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking offenses during which a police officer was killed.”

That, according to Oversight Project vice president Kyle Brosnan, shows DOJ was concerned about the “vague” construct of Biden’s pardons and how they appeared to be “illegally delegated” to staff. They also left the DOJ wondering at times which offenses, for people with multiple convictions, were specifically being expunged.

“Later in the email, he was like, ‘Look, I read the statement you put out in the president’s name, saying you’ve released a bunch of non-violent drug offenders. You’ve got murderers on your list today. So I’m trying to figure out what the president wants here for this funky warrant.’”

Discussing other documents received, Brosnan and attorney Sam Dewey cited a spreadsheet of convicts with “offenses described to the Department of Justice” for the second of several “collective” or catch-all warrants.

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