President Trump quietly denied nearly 6,000 clemency applications this month from people who mostly lacked political connections and had waited patiently in a queue while he awarded pardons and commutations to allies who had skipped the line.
The denials came after his administration had raised hopes that he might mark the country’s semiquincentennial by granting clemency to as many as 250 people.
That raft of clemency grants did not materialize. Instead, Mr. Trump doled out fewer than 20 pardons on July 3 to Clean Air Act scofflaws along with a political donor.
Thousands of other petitioners were left waiting.
The denials were announced inside the Justice Department in a letter dated July 14 from Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, to United States Attorneys across the country.
The letter, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated that Mr. Martin’s office began issuing the rejections on July 10.
Mr. Martin did not provide much explanation for why the applications were denied. Rather, he cited a section of the law outlining how the president can either affirmatively reject clemency petitions or merely allow denial recommendations from the attorney general to go into effect without weighing in.
The letter did not indicate whether Mr. Trump had reviewed and rejected the applications.
A White House official said that there was never a plan to issue 250 pardons for July 4. It was only an idea floated by staff, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversations. The official said that Mr. Trump makes the final decision on all decisions related to clemency.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
About the same time the letter was sent, Mr. Martin’s office posted on its website lists containing the names of more than 300 people whose applications for pardons had been denied on July 10 and more than 5,600 people who were denied their requests for commutations.
Nearly 530 people had been denied pardons or commutations in January, according to the website.
Presidents have unfettered authority to issue pardons, which eliminate nearly all effects of federal criminal convictions, and commutations, which wipe away prison sentences and grant other relief. It is not unusual for them to reject batches of applications.
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his finals days in office denied nearly 6,000 pardons and granted thousands of commutations. While he pardoned his son Hunter Biden and other family members and officials, many of his clemency grants went to nonviolent drug offenders or others who met Justice Department criteria meant to identify and reward those who had demonstrated remorse and were unlikely to reoffend.
By contrast, Mr. Trump’s approach to clemency has almost completely eschewed the Justice Department’s process for vetting and recommending clemency applications like those that were rejected this month.
Instead, his clemency decisions have largely awarded allies and supporters — such as nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — or people who have money to pay well-connected lobbyists and lawyers.
Mr. Trump has bristled at the suggestion that people are making money by brokering pardons.
And in recent months, his team signaled that it intended to issue a batch of grants to less connected recipients in connection with the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence.
Alice Marie Johnson, the White House pardon czar, indicated in a social media post in late May that she had asked a handful of university clemency clinics “to submit candidates that deserve a second chance for consideration.” She added that “anyone is able to submit a clemency request for consideration.”
The University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis submitted more than 15 applications in response, said Mark Osler, a professor there.
Four were in the batch of rejections issued this month. The remainder are still pending, along with thousands of others.
“It’s very discouraging,” Mr. Osler said. “They’re not giving a fair shake to the people who have followed the rules, who have been leaders in prison, who have done all the programming they can, who have truly changed themselves for the better.”
