Office of the Pardon Attorney
About the agency
Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the President's executive clemency power through which he/she can pardon individuals convicted of federal criminal offenses and also commute their sentences. The Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) reviews all requests for executive clemency requested by the President, and prepares the DOJ's recommendations which are signed by the Deputy Attorney General and given to the President. OPA prepares the documents that the President signs when granting clemency and notifies applicants of clemency decisions.
Records available
If a clemency request is submitted to the DOJ, it is OPA that will have records about it.
In Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep't of Justice, 365 F.3d 1108 (D.C. Cir. 2004), Judicial Watch was able to receive thousands of pages of records from OPA regarding pardon grants and pardon applications considered and/or executed by President Clinton. While over 4,000 pages were withheld by OPA under Exemption 5 (and to the extent the records contained information about living individuals, Exemption 6 as well), this case produced a helpful rule: the presidential communications privilege only encompasses OPA records "solicited and received" by the Office of the President, and thus do not extend to records that are not submitted for Presidential consideration.
Thus, a requester seeking records on pardon grants, applications, and the like only runs into the presidential communications privilege in the circumstances discussed above. Such records may qualify for Exemption 5 protection under deliberative process privilege, though.
Requester suggestions, tips and guidance
It is helpful to confirm the existence of a pending clemency case within the DOJ here prior to submitting a FOIA request; if no clemency case file exists for a given individual, OPA is unlikely to have any relevant records on that person.
Appeals suggestions, tips and guidance
Learned something about this agency's process through an appeal? Let everyone know.