Exclusive: More Than 300 Pardon and Commutation Records Went Missing Under Biden Pardon Attorney Who Now Condemns Trump

The disappearance during the Biden Administration of more than 300 “clemency warrants” — the official records of pardons and commutations — could invite further scrutiny of how the 46th president handled one of the presidency’s most awesome powers.The documents went missing when the office was under the supervision of Elizabeth Oyer, a Biden Administration official who — in an appearance before Congress, in a New York Times opinion piece and in an interview for “60 Minutes — has roundly condemned the Trump Administration for mishandling the pardon process of which she had been a dedicated steward.The Sun has exclusively obtained internal documents that shed light on an “internal investigation” that was “conducted into missing clemency documents, namely approximately 301 original, signed, and sealed clemency warrants (‘clemency warrants’) from the last three presidential administrations.” A source inside the current administration tells the Sun that the original paper copies of the warrants have not been found, though copies exist. That assessment was made in a memorandum from November 2022 to a Department of Justice official, Jaclyn Paolucci, from Ms. Elizabeth Oyer, marked “Confidential.” The investigation into the missing pardons “included review of pertinent emails, Teams chats, and memoranda, as well as interviews” with Justice Department personnel. The hundreds of missing pardon and clemency documents predated the polarizing ones — including to Hunter Biden, General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of the House January 6 Committee — issued at the end of Mr. Biden’s term. They also predate Mr. Biden’s commutation of the sentences of 37 death row inmates who were convicted of murder. Republicans — and President Trump — have scrutinized his use of an autopen to add his John Hancock to those documents. Ms. Oyer, who did not respond to a request from the Sun for comment, writes that “the clemency warrants are the official records of presidential grants of clemency in the form of pardons and commutations. Each is on long parchment paper, bearing an official seal in gold and the original signature of the granting president.” The Constitution ordains that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.” The Sun has also obtained a notification of termination, from May of 2023, to the pardon office’s erstwhile Records and Information Manager, Malawi Welles, from the deputy pardon attorney, Kira Gillespie. Ms. Welles was fired following an investigation into the missing documents after she was determined to be “the last person known to be in possession of the warrants” that subsequently disappeared.Ms. Oyer, who was appointed Pardon Attorney in April of 2022 — a role that does not require Senate confirmation — was fired by the Trump Administration in May of 2025 after, she claimed, she refused to recommend restoring Mel Gibson’s gun rights. She has since emerged as a harsh critic of the 47th president, telling “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley that “all of the traditional rules and procedures pertaining to pardons have been thrown out the window. This administration appears to be working around the Justice Department rather than with the Justice Department.”Ms. Oyer, a longtime public defender, testified to Congress after her firing about what she called the “ongoing corruption” at the Trump Justice Department. Meanwhile, Mr. Gibson — who’d lost his gun rights following a domestic violence conviction that was later vacated — was named a “Hollywood Envoy” of the 47th president. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reckoned that Ms. Oyer’s comments were a “direct violation of her ethical duties.”Ms. Oyer’s dossier explains that all such records “are secured through the use of safes, locked file cabinets, and/or restricted access to the space in which they are located.” However, Ms. Oyer writes that “these instructions do not appear to have been followed by Ms. Welles, as the records do not appear to have ever been placed in the safe.” Ms. Welles has “effectively declined to provide information” for the inquiry and “does not recall ever seeing the records.”The probe discovered that the training provided to some employees did not cover “records maintenance systems, nor its procedures for handling, storing, and securing clemency warrants and other documents in the Executive Case File records system.” Instead, it was transmitted on an “ad hoc basis, as employees are required to handle physical clemency records in specific instances.” Ms. Oyer reckoned that “the clemency warrants appear to be missing because procedures and instructions for securing the documents were not followed by Ms. Welles. She was “the designated custodian of the records” and “was instructed to secure these documents by placing them in the safe. Now, she claims never to have seen them.” Ms. Oyer admitted that “their current whereabouts are not known.”The inquiry spotlights the path of one such document on its road to oblivion. On June 14, 2022, Ms. Welles received a commutation warrant, signed by Mr. Biden, for Brittany Krambeck, who served 12 and a half years of her 18-year sentence inside a prison for “maintaining drug-involved premises.” She was under home confinement when the commutation came down. Ms. Welles was “working from home” when the warrant was delivered, so the document was slid under the door” to her “locked office.On June 15 Ms. Welles asked a superior “Where am I supposed to put this document? In the file?” Ms. Welles was told to “start her own filing system.” On June 16 Ms. Welles reported that she “created a file in [her] office for this warrant as well.” The trail goes cold for the Krambeck warrant after June 16, and for the 300 others after June 28. Ms. Oyer concluded that “at this stage, the clemency warrants appear to be missing because procedures and instructions for securing the documents were not followed by Ms. Welles.”The letter to Ms. Welles from Ms. Gillespie contends that she was “the last person known to be in possession of the Warrants.” The notice declares that Ms. Welles was “abjectly derelict in the performance of one of your most fundamental duties and that you failed to safeguard important and quintessential presidential clemency records.” Ms. Gillespie adds that “no supervisor could conceivably have confidence in your ability.” Her removal was effective on May 18, 2023. Ms. Oyer started a Substack in May. Her first entry begins, “Hi everyone, I’m Liz Oyer — rhymes with lawyer, which is apt, because I’ve been a practicing lawyer for more than 20 years.” She concludes, “Now is the time to be brave and try new things. For me, that means speaking out and speaking up in ways I haven’t before.” She also has a TikTok account with some 200,000 followers.

Exclusive: More Than 300 Pardon and Commutation Records Went Missing Under Biden Pardon Attorney Who Now Condemns Trump

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