Trump Pardons and Commutations

September 1, 2017

Mr. Dave Maass

MuckRock News
DEPT MR 35041
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Re: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA 2017-273142
(Acknowledgment)

Dear Mr. Maass:

This correspondence is in response to your Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request dated and received in the Office of the
Pardon Attorney (OPA) on August 31, 2017. Pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq., you requested the following:

1. All communications between the Office of the Pardon Attorney
and the White House from July 28, 2017 to August 31, 2017
2. Agency records related to pardon or commutation requests
transmitted to the White House from July 28, 2017 to August 31, 2017
3. All records received from the White House regarding
commutations and pardons from July 28, 2017 to August 31, 2017
4. A list of all commutations or pardons granted by President
Donald J. Trump
5. All records related to Joe Arpaio received, sent, or maintained
by the Office of the Pardon Attorney

With regard to requests numbers 1, 2, and 3 above, please be advised
once again that deliberative (pre-decisional) communications pertaining
to agency and presidential decision-making are confidential and not
available under existing case law interpreting the Freedom of
Information Act and Privacy Act. In addition, pursuant to 28 CFR § 1.5
<https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2001-title28-vol1/pdf/CFR-2001-title2
8-vol1-sec1-5.pdf> , petitions, reports, memoranda, and communications
submitted or furnished in connection with the consideration of a
petition for executive clemency generally shall be available only to
the officials concerned with the consideration of the petition.
Moreover, as a general matter, Presidents in recent times have rarely
announced their reasons for granting or denying clemency, although the
President may choose to do so in a given case. Consistent with
long-standing policy, if the President does not issue a public
statement concerning his action in a clemency matter, no explanation is
provided by the Department of Justice.

Based on my understanding of your request and the fact that OPA does
not have the ability to perform broad and conclusive email searches
in-house, I will have to request a search be conducted across emails to
or from all OPA employees by the Department of Justice's Office of the
Chief Information Officer (OCIO), so your request falls within "unusual
circumstances." See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B)(i)-(iii). Because of these
unusual circumstances, we are extending the time limit to respond to
your request beyond the ten additional days provided by the statute.
Until OCIO completes a search to determine whether there are any
records within the scope of your request, I will be unable to review
responsive records and provide an estimated response time. The time
needed to process your request will depend on the number of data
requests in queue prior to yours, the complexity of their records
search, and the volume of any records located as being potentially
responsive. For your information, this Office assigns incoming
requests to one of three tracks: simple, complex, or expedited. Each
request is then handled on a first-in, first-out basis in relation to
other requests within the same track. Simple requests usually receive
a response within one month, whereas complex requests take longer. At
this time, your request has been assigned to the complex track because
it is not one that can be responded to without the assistance of
another DOJ office. You may feel free to inquire back about the status
of your request at any point, but I can assure you that I will review
and provide a response to your request as soon as the results of the
search have been provided to me and I am able to review any potentially
relevant records for responsiveness.

With regard to request number 4 above, please be advised once again
that there is no need to FOIA this information because it is publicly
available and proactively disclosed on our website at
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemencyrecipients
<https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemencyrecipients> .

With regard to request number 5 above, the only releasable document
within our files at this time is the clemency warrant signed by the
president, but it has also been proactively released and can be
downloaded from our website at
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-trump
<https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-trump>
You may have read news reports indicating that Mr. Arpaio did not
submit a pardon petition through the Department of Justice so we did
not have a clemency casefile created for him, which is where we would
house all records related to his petition, had one been submitted.

You may email this office at PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov
<mailto:PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov> for any further assistance with
your FOIA request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of
Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and
Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services
they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of
Government Information Services, National Archives and Records
Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland
20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov <mailto:ogis@nara.gov> ; telephone
at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at
202-741-5769.

Sincerely,

William N. Taylor II

Executive Officer

Office of the Pardon Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice

October 2, 2017

Mr. Dave Maass

MuckRock News
DEPT MR 35041
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

Re: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA 2017-273142 (Status Update)

Dear Mr. Maass:

This correspondence is in response to your email dated October 2, 2017,
requesting a status update on the above referenced FOIA request.
Please be advised that potentially relevant documents have not been
search, located and reviewed as of yet. As soon as any potentially
responsive records are reviewed, we will respond accordingly.

You may email this office at PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov
<mailto:PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov> for any further assistance with
your FOIA request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of
Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and
Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services
they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of
Government Information Services, National Archives and Records
Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland
20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov <mailto:ogis@nara.gov> ; telephone
at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at
202-741-5769.

Sincerely,

William N. Taylor II

Executive Officer

Office of the Pardon Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice

February 27, 2024 Dave Maass MuckRock News DEPT MR 91804 411A Highland Avenue Somerville, MA 02144-2516 Re: PARDON FOIA 2017 273142 Dear Dave Maass: This correspondence is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated and received in the Office of the Pardon Attorney (PARDON) on August 29, 2017. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552 et seq., you requested: All communications between the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the White House since July 28, 2017.
Agency records related to pardon or commutation requests transmitted to the White House since July 28, 2017.
All records received from the White House regarding commutations and pardons since July 28, 2017.
A list of all commutations or pardons granted by President Donald J. Trump.
All records related to Joe Arpaio received, sent, or maintained by the Office of the Pardon Attorney. The records you have requested can now be found on our website, https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-attorney-foia/foia-library . Please be advised that this disclosure includes all segregable, nonexempt records within our possession or control. However, I am withholding certain records or portions of records because they are protected from disclosure pursuant to Exemption 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(5) and 6 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(6). You may email this office at PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov for any further assistance with your FOIA request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769. If you are not satisfied with our determination in response to this request, you may administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy (OIP), United States Department of Justice, 441 G Street, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20530, or you may submit an appeal through OIP's FOIA STAR portal by creating an account and following the instructions on OIP’s website: https://www.justice.gov/oip/submit-and-track-request-or-appeal. Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days of the date of my response to your request. We also suggest you clearly note “Freedom of Information Act Appeal of PARDON FOIA 2017 273142 ” so that OIP will be able to refer to the correct case number. Sincerely, Office of the Pardon Attorney