Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) took a former pardon attorney to task for advocating for former President Joe Biden to grant clemency to Dylan Rooff, who was convicted of carrying out a racially motivated mass shooting at a church in South Carolina.
While attorney Liz Oyer gave testimony before the Senate, Sen. Hawley questioned her about the issue. “You recommended that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, grant clemency to all 40 federal death row inmates, all of them, clear them out, correct?” the lawmaker asked.
“Sir, as I told Chairman Grassley, I'm not free to discuss the recommendation. Well, that's what your memo says,” Oyer replied.
Hawley pressed the issue, bringing up a memo she wrote in which she wrote, “disparity and undue severity of sentence, which are present in many, if not all of these cases, have been recognized as grounds for clemency.”
The senator continued, “And you went on to recommend in that memo and a series of other memos that are now recorded and public record that the president of the United States grant clemency to murderers, rapists, and the most horrible offenders. All of them. Clear death row completely out.”
Hawley didn’t stop there. He said he was “amazed” that Oyer was called to testify on Thursday and brought up Rooff’s crimes. “Dylann was a neo-Nazi who murdered 9 African-American worshipers at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, 2015,” he said. “Do you remember this case?”
“I do remember it very well,” Oyer said.
Hawley pulled up images of Rooff’s victims. “I would hope you did. Here's his victims. You want to look at them? There they are. 9 of them at a Bible study. In a church, killed in cold blood,” he said. “The DOJ knew from day one that he had decided— I'm going to quote from the prosecutors— decided to attack African Americans because of their race. He further decided to attack African American worshipers in a black church in order to make his attack more notorious.”
He concluded, “And yet you recommended that he be granted clemency, live at the expense of taxpayers for the rest of his life, substitute your judgment for that of the American judicial system. Do you stand by that recommendation today?”
Oyer responded, “Sir, I'm not going to comment on the recommendations that I made, but I can tell you that Mr. Roof is going to die in prison as—”
Hawley interjected:
Oh, he's going to live in prison for a very long time because of you, because of your recommendations. And here's what you said in your memo of October 30th, 2024. You said that actually Roof is not a compelling candidate for clemency, but you recommended it anyway. Why? Because he suffered from anxiety, you said, right? He suffered from anxiety. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the families of his victims might suffer a little bit of anxiety because he marched into their church and murdered them in cold blood because he was an incredible racist and he wanted to get on TV?
Oyer refused to respond.
NEW: Sen Josh Hawley absolutely obliterates the woman who encouraged Biden to grant clemency to Dylann Roof, who murdered 9 black people at church, because he had anxiety.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 16, 2026
Hawley: "Here are his victims. You wanna look at them?"
Pardon attorney Liz Oyer: "I..."
Hawley: "Do you… pic.twitter.com/c7UaDWhRg8
Oyer was fired from her role as U.S. Pardon Attorney in March 2025 after she refused to recommend that the attorney general restore gun rights back to actor Mel Gibson, who is a friend and supporter of President Donald Trump. He had lost his gun rights after a domestic violence conviction. The lawyer has repeatedly argued her firing was politically motivated.
Roof carried out the shooting on June 17, 2015. He walked into a weekly Bible study and sat with the group of black parishioners for about an hour. Then, he pulled out a handgun and shot and killed nine people, including the church’s pastor. He later admitted he targeted the black church to start a race war due to his animus toward black people.
The authorities arrested Roof the next day during a traffic stop. Officers found the firearm he used in the attack, along with a manifesto filled with racist writings and images. A jury convicted him in December 2016. He was sentenced to death in January 2017. Biden did not include Roof in the list of pardons he issued during his term in office.
It’s quite interesting that Oyer believed Roof deserved a form of clemency, but didn’t have the same level of grace for Gibson — who hasn’t killed anyone except those bad guys in the Lethal Weapon movies.