Justice Department Announces New Acting Pardon Attorney

The Justice Department announced today that Robert A. Zauzmer will become the new Acting Pardon Attorney effective immediately.

Zauzmer, the Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has been 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.

“Bob’s long-standing commitment to criminal justice reform and his knack for devising and implementing the department’s sentencing reduction policies made him a natural choice to serve as Pardon Attorney,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates.  “Bob also shares my unwavering dedication to the president’s clemency initiative.  Given his experience and dedication, I am confident that Bob will hit the ground running.” 

“As someone who has been part of the criminal justice system for more than 25 years, I have long been troubled by the imposition of disproportionately lengthy sentences, even as long as life imprisonment, that were imposed on low-level drug offenders on the basis of laws and policies that have since been changed,” said Zauzmer.  “I have dedicated much of the past decade to assisting in the efforts to right some of those unfairly long sentences, and it is my profound honor to aid the president in using his clemency power to continue to restore the sense of proportionality and fairness that is at the heart of our justice system.”

As part of his efforts on behalf of the department, Zauzmer has testified multiple times before the U.S. Sentencing Commission on sentencing guideline issues, including the retroactive application of reductions in drug sentences.  He also trained federal prosecutors nationwide on how to apply retroactivity in a way that provides relief to all eligible inmates in the most efficient manner possible.  From 2012 to 2014, Zauzmer served as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), working closely with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Yates at a time that they served as chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the AGAC.

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.  After review and recommendation by the Pardon Attorney, the Deputy Attorney General makes a 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.

In December 2013, President Obama directed the department to prioritize applications for clemency from inmates who were sentenced under outdated policies and would have received a lesser sentence under current policies and laws.  Since the clemency initiative was announced in April 2014, the president has granted 187 commutations, more than the last five presidents combined.