Federal-Pardon

The president’s constitutional authority to pardon is unlimited and considered unreviewable in the courts.  The president has relied historically upon advice from the Department of Justice.  Under justice clemency rules, a person becomes eligible to apply for a pardon five years after imposition of sentence or release from confinement; there is no public hearing and no limit on time for decision.  A pardon relieves legal disabilities and signifies rehabilitation, but it does not expunge or seal the record.  Presidential pardons have been sparing since 1980 and the process irregular under the incumbent president.  (Sentence commutations, the other main form of executive clemency, have also been infrequent under most recent presidents.)