Executive Pardons and their boundaries

Elizabeth G. Oyer

Former US Pardon Attorney at DOJ

In conversation with:

Araj Ahmed

 Fmr. Associate General Counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Time will be allocated for Q&A.

Elizabeth G. Oyer is an experienced attorney and justice advocate. From April 2022 to March 2025, Liz served as United States Pardon Attorney, the senior career official in the Department of Justice responsible for advising the President on the exercise of his constitutional clemency power. Liz’s tenure as Pardon Attorney was focused on making second chances through clemency accessible to all deserving Americans without consideration of status, resources, or politics. Liz and her team completely overhauled the clemency application process for the first time in decades to make it more user-friendly; conducted extensive community outreach and education, including visits to prisons around the country; and made recommendations to the President in over 15,000 pardon and commutation cases, prioritizing relief for those sentenced under outdated laws and policies. Liz’s service spanned two presidential administrations, before she was abruptly fired in March 2025, as reported by the New York Times.

Prior to joining the Justice Department, Liz served for 10 years as a Federal Public Defender, representing clients facing all types of federal criminal charges. Liz was the first public defender appointed to serve as Pardon Attorney. Her experience standing beside clients in court shaped her perspective on the value of second chances and informed her understanding of the vital role clemency can play in mitigating excesses of the criminal justice system.

After her departure from the Justice Department, Liz created Lawyer Oyer LLC, an independent media company producing multimedia content to educate the public about threats to the rule of law, focusing on issues related to the courts, the criminal justice system, and presidential power. The Lawyer Oyer platform includes Substack, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more, with over two million followers. Liz is a regular contributing guest on MSNBC, CNN, and other programs and podcasts, and a frequently quoted expert in national news publications. Liz was recently featured on 60 Minutes and in The New York Times Magazine. Liz has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, and other publications.

Liz started her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Stanley Marcus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. From there, Liz worked for the law firm Mayer Brown LLP, where she became a partner and practiced civil and criminal litigation before pivoting to public service. She graduated from Harvard Law School (2004) and Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (2001). Liz is a longtime resident of Washington, D.C.

Liz is a longtime resident of Washington, D.C., where she lives with her husband and son. Liz volunteers with organizations including Martha’s Table and Community of Hope. She is a member of the Board of the D.C. Bar Foundation. Liz has published op-eds about her legal work in Rolling Stone magazine, the Washington Post, and BuzzFeed News. The bizarre circumstances surrounding her March 2025 termination from the Department of Justice were covered by the New York Times.

Araj Ahmed served as the former Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official (ADAEO), or senior ethics attorney, for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) from 2020-2025. In this role, she managed the agency-wide ethics program, including creating and implementing initial and annual ethics training, managing financial disclosures submissions and reviews, and ensuring comprehensive and timely advice to all levels of agency employees, including Presidential Appointed, Senate Confirmed (PAS) employees, on criminal conflicts of interest, Standards of Conduct, gifts, Hatch Act, and post-government employment.

Ms. Ahmed graduated magna cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law. She began her career at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and then moved to Hunton & Williams, practicing employment law with a focus on wage and hour class action lawsuits. She left private practice to join the Department of the Navy’s Office of General Counsel (DON OGC), where she served as the sole civilian personnel attorney and primary ethics counsel for the Office of Naval Research, an Echelon I command. While there, she also chaired the DON OGC’s Recruitment and Retention Committee. In May 2020, after ten years with the Navy, Ms Ahmed transferred to ODNI to take over their ethics program.

Ms. Ahmed currently lives a semi-retired life in Reston, Virginia, with her adopted cat, Max, and occasionally an additional foster cat, as needed.