Abuse of the Pardon Prevention Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2090 To direct the Attorney General to submit to Congress investigative materials in the event of certain pardons granted by the President, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 11, 2019 Ms. CORTEZ MASTO (for herself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. CASEY, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, and Ms. HIRONO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To direct the Attorney General to submit to Congress inves- tigative materials in the event of certain pardons granted by the President, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Abuse of the Pardon 4 Prevention Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT RELATING TO CER- 6 TAIN PARDONS. 7 (a) SUBMISSION OF INFORMATION.—In the event 8 that the President grants an individual a pardon for an 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Jul 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2090.IS S2090 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2090 IS offense against the United States that arises from an in- 1 vestigation in which the President, or a relative of the 2 President, is a target, subject, or witness, not later than 3 30 days after the date of such pardon, the Attorney Gen- 4 eral shall submit to the chairmen and ranking members 5 of the appropriate congressional committees all materials 6 of an investigation that were obtained by a United States 7 Attorney, another Federal prosecutor, or an investigative 8 authority of the Federal Government, relating to the of- 9 fense for which the individual is so pardoned. 10 (b) TREATMENT OF INFORMATION.—Rule 6(e) of the 11 Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure may not be con- 12 strued to prohibit the disclosure of information required 13 by subsection (a) of this section. 14 (c) APPLICABILITY.—Subsection (a) shall apply with 15 respect to a pardon granted by the President on or after 16 January 20, 2017. 17 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 18 (1) The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com- 19 mittees’’ means— 20 (A) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 21 House of Representatives and the Committee 22 on the Judiciary of the Senate; and 23 (B) if an investigation relates to intel- 24 ligence or counterintelligence matters, the Per- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Jul 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2090.IS S2090 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2090 IS manent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 1 House of Representatives and the Select Com- 2 mittee on Intelligence of the Senate. 3 (2) The term ‘‘pardon’’ includes a commutation 4 of sentence. 5 (3) The term ‘‘relative’’ has the meaning given 6 that term in section 3110(a) of title 5, United 7 States Code. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:07 Jul 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2090.IS S2090 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS