The Art of the Pardon: How The Dept. of Justice Became a Favor Bank (with Liz Oyer)

About this episode

Liz Oyer discusses the politicization of presidential pardons and clemency under the Trump administration.

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer was fired by Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche after she refused to recommend giving a domestic abuser back his gun. That criminal was Trump’s “Ambassador to Hollywood” Mel Gibson. Oyer explains how presidential pardons and clemency is supposed to work. With Trump’s Dept. of Justice, it’s been supercharged. Pardons seem to be driven by personal favors, political alliances and outright cash payoffs.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

People in this episode

Guest: Liz Oyer

Topics covered

• pardon
• clemency
• political favors
• justice system
• Trump administration

Keywords

• pardon
• clemency
• Dept. of Justice
• political favors
• Mel Gibson

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dept. of Justice, Trump, Mission Implausible

More episodes of Mission Implausible

• Swinging at Curveball: When You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad (with Bob Drogin) · June 7, 2026 · 53 min
• How Everyone Else Sees America (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - ENCORE · May 31, 2026 · 42 min
• The Hawaiian Cult that raised Tulsi Gabbard (with Christine Gralow) - ENCORE · May 24, 2026 · 37 min
• Hunting Weapons of Mass Destruction (with Andy Weber) · May 17, 2026 · 42 min
• How the CIA Decides What’s Legal (with James Petrila) · May 10, 2026 · 50 min
• Crypto: The Trump Family Business (with Zach Everson) · May 3, 2026 · 48 min