Grant pardons & reprieves
For federal offenses, the President's clemency power is close to absolute: pardons erase convictions, commutations shorten sentences, and neither Congress nor the courts can undo them. It is the presidency's most personal power, exercised with no vote and no veto.
Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.
The President, alone
How it works in practice
clemencyThe President's power to forgive or reduce federal punishment: a pardon erases the conviction's penalties, a commutation shortens the sentence, a reprieve delays it.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) covers 'Offences against the United States', federal crimes only, not state crimes or civil tortA civil wrong that injures someone, giving them a claim for damages: negligence, defamation, product defects, trespass.Read the full definition (opens a new tab), and cannot touch impeachment. Pardons can issue before charges are filed (Ex parte Garland; the Nixon pardon), and can be broad. A Justice Department pardon attorneyA lawyer licensed to practice in a jurisdiction and to represent someone else in court. Counsel means the same thing in most legal usage.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) processes routine applications, but the process is advisory: the power belongs to the President personally.