About
Jeffrey Toobin is a lawyer, author, and former CNN chief legal analyst, and the author of "The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy" (Simon & Schuster, 2025).
His 2025 keynote was a sweeping discussion of presidential clemency power in America, delivered weeks before the hottest stretch on record for pardons and expungement.
At the White Collar Conference
Jeffrey Toobin traced the presidential pardon power from Alexander Hamilton and George Washington through Lincoln's amnesty, Warren Harding's pardon of Eugene Debs and Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, then walked through the pardons of every modern president. He said the current process favors people with connections over the merits of a case, and told everyone rebuilding after a case that many people are rooting for them.
“I'm a big fan of second chances. I've gotten some myself.”
Watch at 1:01
“It operates like an x-ray into the souls of presidents because they can do whatever they want.”
Watch at 3:44
“There is no better American story than the comeback.”
Watch at 33:50
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:55 Second chances and American comebacks
- 1:57 The pardon power: the Constitution, Hamilton, Washington and Lincoln
- 8:19 Parole, Warren Harding and Eugene Debs
- 12:18 Ford pardons Nixon, and pardons from Carter to Clinton
- 16:50 George W. Bush, Scooter Libby and the Obama Clemency Project
- 20:21 Trump and Biden pardons
- 28:02 Who decides pardons now
- 31:53 How people get a pardon today
- 33:17 The comeback
With Jeff Grant and Craig Stanland
Join us in fall 2027.
The fourth annual White Collar Conference is planned for fall 2027, virtual on Zoom and open to all.