Trump’s Second-Term Clemency Surge — A Rare Double Pardon and a Broad Sweep of Pardons

President Donald Trump has dramatically expanded his use of presidential clemency in his second term, issuing a high volume of pardons and commutations across a wide range of cases — including the unusual instance of granting two separate federal clemency actions to the same person in unrelated cases.

The Double Pardon: Adriana Camberos

Among the latest batch of clemency actions was Adriana Camberos, who received a full pardon for a 2024 federal conviction involving deceptive resale of wholesale goods. That pardon followed an earlier, unrelated commutation in 2021 for a separate fraud case. Legal experts say the move, while uncommon, is permitted under the Constitution.

“A president absolutely does have the power to grant the same person two different pardons on two different cases, even if they’re sequential. The pardon power itself is essentially unlimited,” said CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

How Presidential Clemency Works

There are two principal forms of federal clemency: a pardon, which can restore rights and effectively erase the legal consequences of a federal conviction, and a commutation, which reduces or ends a sentence without overturning the underlying conviction. Both tools apply only to federal offenses.

Previous Examples Of Sequential Clemency

Trump has used staged clemency before. In 2020 he commuted Roger Stone’s prison sentence and later granted Stone a full pardon. He also commuted Alice Marie Johnson’s life sentence in 2018 and pardoned her in 2020; Johnson was later named White House pardon czar during Trump’s second term. Last year Trump granted a second pardon to Dan Wilson for firearm offenses connected to January 6 that were not included in an earlier clemency action.

Scale And Comparisons

One year into his second term, the administration reported roughly 1,609 pardons and clemencies, compared with 148 during Trump’s entire first term. About 1,500 of those actions have been tied to defendants connected to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack; even excluding those, Trump’s clemency rate in his second term far exceeds his activity during the same point of his first presidency.

By comparison, President Joe Biden granted about 80 individual pardons over his presidency and issued a record 4,245 commutations (many for nonviolent drug offenses), while President Barack Obama granted 212 pardons across two terms, according to Justice Department records and independent research.

Categories And Notable Recipients

Trump’s clemency actions in his second term fall into several broad categories:

• January 6 Pardons: On Inauguration Day, Trump granted full pardons to many people convicted in connection with the January 6 attack, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and members of other extremist groups.
• Political Allies And Election-Related Figures: A November round included pardons for supporters who sought to overturn the 2020 election, such as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
• Financial Donors And Business Figures: Several recipients have had financial ties to Trump or his allies, including pardons involving the family of financier Julio Herrera Velutini and Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola.
• Cryptocurrency And Tech Figures: High-profile tech and crypto pardons include Changpeng Zhao (Binance), Ross William Ulbricht (founder of Silk Road), and the BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed.
• Public Figures And Celebrities: Recipients also include former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, baseball player Darryl Strawberry, investor Joe Lewis and former Rep. Michael Grimm.
• Controversial International Cases: Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted on drug trafficking charges — a move that drew bipartisan criticism. He also pardoned former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez for a campaign finance violation.

Policy, Process And Political Implications

White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson — herself a beneficiary of staged clemency from Trump — along with the Department of Justice and the White House counsel’s office, has guided many second-term clemency decisions. Critics and supporters alike have framed the use of clemency in political terms: defenders call some grants a correction of perceived injustices or political prosecutions, while opponents cite favoritism toward donors, allies and politically connected figures.

“It is unusual historically to see pardons granted this early and this frequently in a presidency,” Honig said, noting that many presidents traditionally wait until the end of their terms to issue the bulk of pardons.

The recent clemency campaign has reshaped expectations about how and when the presidential pardon power might be deployed, combining sweeping, mass pardons with targeted actions that reflect political, personal and policy priorities of the administration.

This article was updated with additional reporting and details.