The Oversight Project on Autopenned Clemency Warrants: Autopenned Willie Hortons to Be Home for Christmas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2025
Washington, D.C. – The Oversight Project calls on the Department of Justice to take action on President Trump’s declaration that presidential actions done in President Joe Biden’s name, including pardons and prison commutations signed with an autopen, do not have the force or effect of law. He has said so before, but his Administration has not followed through with action. Now, however, it appears the President is making emphatically clear his expectations that his Administration is to implement these orders. This will largely be the responsibility of the Department of Justice. Since we broke the Biden autopen scandal in March, we have led the charge in calling for accountability for unelected bureaucrats running the country in place of the President of the United States.
We have focused extensively on the Biden White House’s use of an autopen to affix the former president’s signatures on pardons and prison commutations. Only the President can wield the pardon and commutation power, and as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer found, there is not clear evidence that President Biden ever authorized the presidential pardons he purportedly promulgated in the waning days of his administration. Given that President Biden lied about who received autopenned pardons, he and his former administration officials have lost the benefit of the doubt on this and many other issues.
On January 17, 2025, the Biden White House issued a statement in Joe Biden’s name that claimed to award clemency to “nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses” with disproportionately long sentences. The next day, according to a document we obtained, Joe Biden’s own Justice Department implored the White House to stop lying about who received pardons and even went as far as to raise questions about whether they were legal. The supposed “nonviolent drug offenders” whose prison sentences were commuted via autopen include inmates who killed cops, murdered witnesses and their children, shot informants, hired hitmen, and were gang members.
But Democrats and the Deep State are continuing to allow criminals to be released by the dead hand of Joe Biden’s autopen. These modern day “Willie Hortons” are coming home for Chrimstas when they should be serving years in federal prison. Each of these releases is an affront to the American People and President Trump. We are releasing a video to call attention to two of them.
Kewaannee Williams had his 7-year, six-month sentence commuted to under three and half years with good time via the Biden White House autopen. Williams pled guilty to conspiracy to deal crack cocaine and other lesser-included offenses. While he appears to be a “nonviolent drug offender” on the surface, court filings tell another story. In his case, the Justice Department sought a sentence of 120 months in prison. It based this request on the fact that Williams was a ring leader in a New York City gang who dealt drugs and engaged in gun fights with rival gang members. The Justice Department also pointed out that Williams served a 3.5-year state prison sentence for attempted robbery and participated in gang activities while in state prison. Finally, the Justice Department explained in detail his decades-long membership in a New York City gang. Nevertheless, he is set to be released from federal prison on December 28, 2025.
Another autopenned clemency recipient set to come home this year is Jason Gonzalez. Gonzalez was part of the same New York City street gang as Williams. His 8 year sentence was commuted to under three and a half years with good time via the Biden autopen. The Government sought a 136 month Sentence based on the fact that Gonzalez was a leader in the gang. The Justice Department noted that Gonzalez had an extremely serious criminal history, including a conviction for attempted murder and explained his lengthy history as a gang-banger. Nevertheless, Gonzales is coming home on December 27, 2025.
The Trump Administration should refuse to release them, and every other hardened criminal set to be released pursuant to an autopen-forged clemency warrant. President Trump has been crystal clear, these autopenned pardons are void. But his Department of Justice continues to release prisoners under highly questionable autopenned warrants. These people are not the “nonviolent drug offenders” Joe Biden alluded to in his failed attempt to give ex post facto assent to the autopenned pardons he never actually authorized. They are violent felons and career criminals. U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin is a patriot who has done excellent work to uncover the damage that the Biden White House’s autopenned pardon documents have inflicted on our Republic. He should be fully resourced to implement the President’s orders restore necessary justice to these violent felons and career criminals and keep them off of our streets.
Oversight Project President Mike Howell released the following statement:
“Enough is enough. The American People want accountability and results. President Trump has been emphatically clear that autopenned actions are null and void. The Trump Administration should not allow these gang-bangers to roam American streets with an autopen pardon or commutation in their back pocket, probably right next to their gun and drugs. It is the opposite of law and order and I know that President Trump does not want that. Ever since we broke this scandal and provided mountains of evidence, we have singularly been focused on achieving actual results. That is what makes the Oversight Project distinct: our fearless pursuit of actual accountability. I’m sick of seeing these gangbangers being released by this Department of Justice. Arresting those released and refusing to release any more gangbangers would be a great result and entirely justified legally.”