President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has launched a sweeping review of clemency orders issued by former President Joe Biden, zeroing in on controversial pardons—including a full pardon for Hunter Biden and sentence commutations for over 35 death row inmates. The concern? Whether Biden was mentally capable of making those decisions—or if unelected staffers and even an AutoPen were calling the shots.
Leading the review is Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, who’s also heading Trump’s newly-formed Weaponization Working Group under Attorney General Pam Bondi. According to an internal email obtained by Reuters, Martin was directed to scrutinize the final wave of Biden pardons, particularly those involving family members and politically connected individuals. Martin has already signaled he plans to “take a hard look” at how these decisions were made.
The White House has acknowledged the review and confirmed Martin’s role. A spokesperson stated, “President Trump was elected to restore the integrity and transparency of the office,” and said the American people deserve to know whether unelected staffers used Biden’s condition to push their own agenda.
This comes as new books and whistleblower reports raise red flags about Biden’s cognitive state in his final months. Meanwhile, Biden allies argue the president thoughtfully reviewed over 2,500 clemency cases, mostly for nonviolent drug offenders.
Still, critics note the timing and scope of the pardons—including Hunter’s—raise serious ethical and legal concerns. Now, Trump’s DOJ is shining a harsh light on what some are calling “clemency corruption,” demanding transparency and accountability from a presidency that may not have been fully awake at the wheel.