00:00Miss Orger, if I could just turn to you. You were President Biden's pardon attorney, is that correct?
00:05I was the Justice Department's pardon attorney.
00:07You recommended, you made clemency recommendations to the White House whether or not to pardon inmates, is that correct?
00:13My job was to make clemency recommendations.
00:15And in that capacity, you recommended that the President of the United States, Joe Biden,
00:20grant clemency to all 40 federal death row inmates, all of them, clear them out, correct?
00:26Sir, as I told Chairman Grassley, I'm not free to discuss the recommendations.
00:31Well, that's what your memo says. I mean, we have your memo.
00:34Your memo of November 4th, 2024 says, and I quote,
00:39disparity and undue severity of sentence, which are present in many, if not all of these cases,
00:44have been recognized as grounds for clemency.
00:47And you went on to recommend in that memo and a series of other memos that are now recorded and
00:52public record
00:52that the President of the United States grant clemency to murderers, rapists, and the most horrible offenders,
00:59all of them, clear death row completely out.
01:01I'm amazed you've been called here today.
01:02I'm absolutely amazed by it.
01:04But let's just talk about the people who you recommended.
01:07You talk about honoring victims.
01:08The people who you recommended get clemency and live at the expense and sufferance of taxpayers for the rest of
01:15their lives.
01:15Let's start with Dylann Roof.
01:17Dylann was a neo-Nazi who murdered nine African-American worshipers at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, 2015.
01:27Do you remember this case?
01:28I do remember it very well.
01:30I would hope you did.
01:31Here's his victims.
01:31Do you want to look at them?
01:32There they are, nine of them, at a Bible study, in a church, killed in cold blood.
01:40But the DOJ knew from day one that he had decided, I'm going to quote from the prosecutors,
01:45decided to attack African-Americans because of their race.
01:49He further decided to attack African-American worshipers in a black church in order to make his attack more notorious.
01:57More notorious.
01:59And yet you recommended that he be granted clemency, live at the expense of taxpayers for the rest of his
02:04life,
02:05substitute your judgment for that of the American judicial system.
02:07Do you stand by that recommendation today?
02:09Sir, I'm not going to comment on the recommendations that I made,
02:13but I can tell you that Mr. Roof is going to die in prison as...
02:16Oh, he's going to live in prison for a very long time because of you, because of your recommendations.
02:21And here's what you said in your memo of October 30th, 2024.
02:25You said that actually Roof is not a compelling candidate for clemency, but you recommended it anyway.
02:29Why?
02:30Because he suffered from anxiety, you said.
02:33Right?
02:33He suffered from anxiety.
02:36Did it ever occur to you that maybe the family of his victims might suffer a little bit of anxiety
02:42because he marched into their church and murdered them in cold blood because he was an incredible racist and he
02:47wanted to get on TV?
02:50Sir.
02:50Do you regret it?
02:51I'm not going to comment on the recommendations that I made to the president.
02:54Let's talk about Robert Bowers, a man who regularly spewed such vile hatred of Jews.
02:59It's unlike anything I've ever seen.
03:01He barged into a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and he shot everybody he could find,
03:07killing 11 innocent people who were there to worship.
03:12A federal jury in Pittsburgh unanimously recommended the death sentence after finding him guilty on 63 counts.
03:19Here they are.
03:21They're his victims.
03:22Take a good look.
03:24You recommended clemency for this person who went in and killed these people just because they're Jews.
03:32He killed, the other guy killed people just because they're black.
03:35This guy killed people just because they're Jews.
03:37A jury recommended that he be sentenced to death and you substituted your judgment for theirs and now he's going
03:43to live.
03:44Are you proud of that?
03:46Sir, what I am proud of is the fact that I took my job as pardon attorney extremely seriously.
03:53Apparently not seriously enough.
03:55You certainly didn't take the victims seriously.
03:57Then there's Jorge Avila Torres who wasn't just a murderer.
04:00He was a serial killer and a rapist.
04:03Sir, you're not...
04:04Here is who he assaulted and killed.
04:07He sexually assaulted and killed 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Crystal Tobias in a Chicago suburb
04:16in 2005.
04:17And then four years after that, he committed another murder.
04:21He slaughtered a fellow service member, Navy Petty Officer Amanda Snell, in 2009 while she was in her barracks.
04:28That's what he did.
04:30And you recommended clemency for this individual and now he'll live his life at the expense of taxpayers because you
04:39substituted your judgment for that of the American judicial system.
04:43Jury judges the whole lot.
04:45And yet you're here to tell us that you're somehow a victim?
04:48I don't think so, Ms. Oyer.
04:50I think your judgment is astoundingly terrible.
04:53I'm amazed that this side of the aisle has called you.
04:56And I just ask my friends on this side of the aisle, do you agree with this?
05:00Is this what you want?
05:02Do you want these people to be pardoned and live at the expense of taxpayers for their whole lives?
05:08Do you want to excuse the murders of African-American churchgoers?
05:12Do you want to excuse the murders of Jews in their synagogues?
05:15Do you want to excuse the murders of these children?
05:17Because that's what she did.
