Liz Oyer

This administration appears to be using pardons in a completely different and new way, which is to reward people who demonstrate political loyalty to the administration, and that is unprecedented.

Pardons are normally reserved for people who show remorse for a crime they've been convicted of and who have actually served at least some and typically all of their sentence and have shown personal growth and rehabilitation during that time.

But now the ordinary people seem to have been completely forgotten. There are applications piled up at the office of the pardon attorney from individuals who are incarcerated around the country, some of whom have been waiting years for their applications to be considered, and those are being ignored in favor of the wealthy and well-connected.