Office of the Pardon Attorney

Meet the Director

Meet the Acting Pardon Attorney

Acting Pardon Attorney

Robert A. Zauzmer was named Acting Pardon Attorney on February 1, 2016, having served as an Assistant United States Attorney and the Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as being a key player in the Department’s implementation of both the 2013 Smart on Crime initiative and the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s retroactive sentence reductions.

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Mission

The Office of the Pardon Attorney assists the President in the exercise of executive clemency. Under the Constitution, the President's clemency power extends only to federal criminal offenses. All requests for executive clemency for federal offenses are directed to the Pardon Attorney for investigation and review. The Pardon Attorney prepares the Department's recommendation to the President for final disposition of each application. Executive clemency may take several forms, including pardon, commutation of sentence, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve.

NOTICE

The Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) welcomes correspondence, by mail or email, regarding clemency matters. Due to current resource limitations, we do not respond to every piece of correspondence that is submitted to this office. However, every submission is given appropriate attention. Please read an explanation here.