Internal Justice Department emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request show officials scrambled to interpret and correct errors in Joe Biden's end-of-term clemency grants, with many commutations bypassing the department's usual pardon-office vetting. The records, secured by the group Protect the Public's Trust and shared with Fox News Digital, reveal confusion over cases including a career offender's sentence and an incorrectly worded notice describing Hunter Biden's pardon. The findings have drawn criticism from former pardon attorneys, a federal judge and other officials, who say the process fell short of the careful deliberation Biden's administration publicly promised.

Among the specific issues, a deputy pardon attorney acknowledged that many of the 17 January commutations lacked normal review, while the Office of the Pardon Attorney was reportedly caught off guard by Hunter Biden's pardon and had to correct a notice wrongly stating it came "after completion of sentence." Separately, US District Judge Daniel Hovland said neither sentencing judges, prosecutors nor victims had been consulted on more than a dozen North Dakota commutations. The DOJ also confirmed that roughly 1,500 people granted clemency on 12 December, largely those on CARES Act home confinement, did not receive individualised case reviews, while then-Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer said in a leaked internal email that the January action was carried out with little coordination with the department.