White House attorneys weigh mass pardons for junior Trump staffers

White House attorneys are evaluating mass pardons for junior staffers as Trump allies demand protection from Democratic legal threats, a step that follows Biden’s own preemptive clemency for allies.

The Washington Sun reported that White House attorneys are reviewing whether to issue mass or blanket pardons for junior staffers and lower-ranked officials. Two sources familiar with the conversations described the discussions, driven by pressure from Trump allies and conservative groups to shield those employees from prosecution and other legal challenges.

Questions have mounted about legal jeopardy for thousands of employees who carried out the administration’s agenda. One source called a pardon covering all junior personnel unlikely. The talks have included possible blanket pardons for staff working particular policy areas such as deportations, war, or trade, along with potential funding for legal fees.

President Donald Trump has already shown he will use the pardon power. He has publicly discussed pardons for top aides and granted clemency to roughly 1,700 people as of June. The Constitution gives the president power to grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses, except in impeachment cases. That power does not cover state or local crimes, and a Democratic Congress would have little ability to overturn broad pardons.

Slotkin remarks fuel calls for broad protection

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) said earlier this month that congressional investigations into Trump officials should make young Republicans think twice before joining the administration in its final two years. That warning drew a sharp response from allies who see Democratic lawfare as the real threat.

Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, told the outlet on Friday he plans to press the White House for action. He framed the issue as defense of young people who signed up to serve.

"After listening to Elissa Slotkin threatening to go after young people who joined the Trump administration, President Trump should issue very broad preemptive pardons for anyone who worked for him or in his orbit."

Conservative organizations influential with the administration, including the Heritage Foundation and American Moment, have pressed White House counsel to prepare pardons or legal-fee support. Nick Solheim, CEO of American Moment, declined to discuss private talks but spelled out the stakes.

"The president has been very clear he knows the personal, professional and financial risks of Democratic lawfare against people who are affiliated with him and serve him. Political appointees operate on behalf of the president, and I don’t have any assumptions other than that the left will do everything in its power to hunt down conservatives who are implementing the president’s agenda."

Trump himself addressed the reporting on Saturday. He said it would “be very unfair” for his staff to face the “corrupt weaponization” that took place under Biden, adding he does not want “innocent people go through h*** and lose all their money.”

Earlier this month he told Newsmax he has no interest in watching people who work for him endure “years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing,” calling the left “lunatics.” In a September interview with Time magazine he pointed straight at the double standard: “Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them?”

Biden’s preemptive pardons already rewrote the playbook

Joe Biden issued more acts of clemency than any prior president. At the end of his term he handed out more than a dozen preemptive pardons to prominent allies, including several family members, top medical adviser Anthony Fauci, and retired Gen. Mark Milley. He did so without consulting the Justice Department’s pardon office.

Liz Oyer, the pardon attorney under Biden, called that a “really bad precedent” even while noting the limited scope. She warned that going further would cross a deeper line.

"There have never before been blanket preemptive pardons of everyone in the administration. Preemptive pardons of everyone in the administration, or even of a significant number of administration officials, would be incredibly damaging because they would effectively place the executive branch outside the reach of the law, which would upset the constitutional order of our country in a very fundamental way."

Mark Osler, a law professor and clemency expert at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, called widespread pardons for political appointees “a new development in American history.” He described the shift this way:

"It’s a despoilment of what is supposed to be a tool for mercy and national reconciliation being used as a battlefield tool in political wars. Certainly, the Biden administration did this and blazed the trail, and now it’s potentially being followed in much greater numbers by Trump. I don’t think anyone would conceive that the framers would hope it would be used this way."

Robert Weissman, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, took the opposite view of the risk. He told the outlet that administration officials should worry about accountability for civil and criminal violations not because future prosecutors might be vindictive, but because their jobs would require them to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute “the blatant illegalities of the administration.”

Traditional pardon process already scrambled

The formal pardon process has long sat at the Justice Department, where candidates are vetted before reaching the president. The Trump administration has scrambled that process. In April the Wall Street Journal reported Trump had suggested, to laughs, pardoning “everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval.” Then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied that the paper “should learn to take a joke.”

Trump has also shown he will not rubber-stamp every claim of loyalty. After news broke that the Justice Department is looking into allegations of contract misconduct against longtime aide Corey Lewandowski, the president told reporters he wants his people to be honest. “And if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted.” His Justice Department has also brought cases against former FBI Director James Comey and two former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about the bureau’s Hunter Biden investigations.

Readers tracking presidential legal authority will note the same pattern in Trump’s choice of White House counsel and in earlier clemency decisions such as the pardon of Emory Jones. Separate fights over DOJ demands, including a Biden-appointed judge dropping a signer requirement in a Trump-related matter, keep the same legal machinery in view. White House personnel moves, from press secretary appointments to later transitions, sit in the same staffing lane.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Heritage Foundation officials likewise did not respond. No final decision on mass or blanket pardons has been announced. The evaluation itself remains the verified development.

Junior staffers who implement a president’s lawful agenda should not face years of lawfare simply for showing up to work. If Democrats created the preemptive-pardon precedent and now threaten the next generation of appointees, they own the consequences.