WATCH: GOP senators tear into former Biden pardon attorney over push to spare ‘mass murderers’ from death row
Several Republican senators challenged the credibility of the testimony of a former Biden Justice Department official during day two of the Todd Blanche confirmation hearing, pointing to the part she played in the clemency granted to 37 death row inmates.
Democrats called Elizabeth Oyer, the former U.S. Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice, a nonpolitical position she served from April 2022 until March 2025 when then Deputy Attorney General Blanche fired her, which she argued was politically motivated.
While Democrats cast the former pardon attorney as evidence Blanche had politicized the Justice Department, Republicans argued her recommendations to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates undermined her credibility.
Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April 2, did not publicly disclose the reasoning for Oyer's firing, but she claimed it's because she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson, who serves as a special envoy to Hollywood for President Donald Trump, have his gun rights restored. The Justice Department denied this as the cause for her firing.
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In her opening testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Oyer mentioned Blanche's handling of the Epstein files and Ghislaine Maxwell's reassignment to a lower security prison, as among the main reasons Blanche should not become attorney general.
"At the end of the day, the priority of this DOJ is protecting powerful men, even when it comes at the expense of vulnerable women," Oyer testified Thursday.
But Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, hammered Oyer over an internal memo from Nov. 4, 2024, in which she recommended that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland advise then-President Joe Biden to consider commuting the 40 remaining federal death sentences. Biden went on to commute the death sentences of 37 of those recommended.
"You have no credibility to talk about Todd Blanche, you have none," Schmitt said. "You've come here, you deny basic facts. You recommended the commutation of murderers. You gave no quarter at all or any time to the victims of these brutal murders. So, again, I can't believe you've been called here by the other side. But I'm glad we've had an opportunity to expose your hypocrisy."
A report from the Justice Department found that Oyer's 73-page memorandum only dedicated three paragraphs to address the grievances of the victims' families.
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Earlier in the hearing, Hawley pointed out some of the notorious federal death row inmates whose death sentences Oyer recommended be commuted to life in prison. Among them was Dylan Roof, who was convicted for the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where he killed nine Black parishioners during a Bible study. Biden ultimately declined to pardon him.
"You said that actually Roof is not a compelling candidate for clemency, but you recommended it anyway," Hawley said, referring to Oyer's memorandum. "Why? Because he suffered from anxiety. You said 'right, he suffered from anxiety'. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the family of his victims might suffer a little bit of anxiety because he marched into their church and murdered them in cold blood, because he was an incredible racist and he wanted to get on TV?"
Hawley then turned to Oyer's recommendation to commute the death sentence of Robert Bowers, who was convicted of 63 federal charges stemming from the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which killed 11 Jewish worshippers. Biden also did not commute Bowers' sentence.
"This guy killed people just because they're Jews," Hawley said. "A jury recommended that he be sentenced to death, and you substituted your judgment for theirs, and now he's going to live. Are you proud of that?"
"Sir, what I am proud of is the fact that I took my job as pardon attorney extremely seriously," Oyer said in response.
"I think your judgment is astoundingly terrible. I'm amazed that this side of the aisle has called you." Hawley responded.
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But Grassley pointed out that Oyer also recommended commuting the death sentence of Jorge Avila-Torrez. Torrez was on federal death row for convictions stemming from the stabbing deaths of two young girls in Illinois; the murder of Navy Petty Officer Amanda Snell at a Virginia military base, and the abduction and rape of a University of Maryland graduate student.
He pressed Oyer on the pardon recommendations she made. Oyer refused to answer, invoking the president's executive privileges.
"You can't even tell me if you contacted the victim's family?," Grassley asked. "You can't say yes or no to that?"
Oyer said that all the death row inmates who received clemency will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
"These are absolutely horrific cases," Oyer said. "And every one of the individuals you mentioned will remain incarcerated for the rest of their lives, most likely in a maximum security prison facility."
Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., condemned his Republican colleagues' line of questioning with Oyer later in the hearing.
"I just want to start off by saying, Miss Sawyer, I hold you in the highest esteem and respect, especially what you're doing now as a private citizen," Booker said. "You use a platform to educate people about the law. It is technical, but yet accessible. And the badgering you just endured, it should be in completely unacceptable. You were asked to comment on things you didn't have before you. The treatment here to me, is just outrageous. And I apologize on behalf of the United States Senate."
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office and Oyer for comment.
