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The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said.
Trump, who had been rolling out pardons and commutations at a steady pace before Christmas, had put a hiatus on them in the days leading up to and immediately following the Jan.6 riots on the U.S. Capitol, officials said.
Aides said Trump was particularly focused on counting the Electoral College in the days ahead, preventing him from making final decisions on pardons. White House officials expected them to resume after January 6, but Trump withdrew after being accused of inciting riots.
Initially, two major batches were ready for deployment, one at the end of last week and one Tuesday. Now officials expect the last batch to be the only one – unless Trump decides at the last minute to grant pardons to controversial allies, family members, or himself.
The latest round of clemency action is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-focused pardons and more controversial pardons obtained or distributed to political allies.
Forgiveness is one of the many things Trump must accomplish before his presidency ends in a few days. White House officials have also yet prepared executive orders, and the president still hopes to declassify information relating to the Russia investigation before he leaves office. But with a dwindling number of government officials still in place, the likelihood of everything being done seems to be diminishing.
The January 6 riots that led to Trump’s second indictment complicated his desire to forgive himself, his children and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At this point, aides don’t think he will, but be careful only Trump knows what he will do with his last bit of presidential power before he is officially removed from office at noon on January 20.
After the riots, advisers urged Trump to forgo self-forgiveness as it appears he was guilty of something, according to a person familiar with the conversations. Several of Trump’s closest advisers have also urged him not to grant leniency to anyone involved in the siege of the U.S. Capitol, despite Trump’s initial position that those involved had done nothing wrong.
“There are a lot of people urging the president to forgive the people” involved in the insurgency, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Sunday. “To ask for forgiveness from these people would be a mistake.”
A White House official said the paperwork has yet to be drafted for a self-pardon.
Still, Trump is expected to leave the White House on January 20 and could issue pardons until noon on inauguration day.
It is also not certain that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon will receive a pardon.
Trump is still receiving multiple streams of pardons recommendations from advisers who remain in the White House, as well as from people outside the building who have been lobbying for months for themselves or their clients.
Allies expect Trump to issue pardons that he could benefit from after the presidency.
“Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it’s one-sided. And he likes to do favors for people he thinks he owes him,” said a source familiar with the matter.
Inside the White House, there has been a rush of apologies on behalf of allies and advocacy groups and names could be added and removed until the last minute, sources say.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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