Access, Influence and Pardons: How a Set of Allies Shaped Trump's Choices
A loose collection of well-connected groups and individuals led by a pair of Orthodox Jewish organizations had striking success in winning clemency for white-collar criminals during the Trump presidency.
That network revolved around a pair of influential Jewish organizations that focus on criminal justice issues — the Aleph Institute and Tzedek Association — and well-wired people working with them, including the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, and Nick Muzin, a Republican operative.
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.
From NY times.
