Alice Marie Johnson was set to bring her latest list of pardon recommendations to President Donald Trump in a meeting just before Christmas last year, an exclamation point at the end of a year marked by the reemergence of a muscular pardoning operation at the White House.
But the meeting between the president and Johnson, his “pardon czar,” was cancelled, joining a list of several planned meetings with people in charge of presenting pardons that were ultimately pulled off Trump’s schedule in late 2025, according to multiple sources familiar with the White House’s pardon process.
Senior leadership, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, had grown concerned about the optics of the president’s pardons, according to three people familiar with discussions, and moved to tighten the process. The effect of those efforts limited Johnson’s access to the one person who makes the final decision: Trump.