While Mr. Obama issued nearly 1,700 more clemency grants than Mr. Trump, he selected mostly cases that came through a Justice Department process for identifying and vetting recipients. The overwhelming majority of Mr. Trump’s pardons and commutations bypassed that process, and were instead awarded through an ad hoc system run by a handful of White House aides, with assistance from outside advisers. A spokesman for Aleph said the group selected candidates based on factors including humanitarian concerns, clear demonstrations of remorse and its commitment to addressing what it often sees as excessively long sentences. In two cases in which the White House credited Aleph with supporting clemency grants to people who had donated to the group, the spokesman said rabbis at Aleph merely expressed support for the petition. Aleph minimized its connection to Tzedek’s clemency work and said it was misleading to describe the organizations as part of a clemency network, while noting that clemency was only a small part of the group’s work.

Source: New York Times March 21, 2021 06:56 UTC