Trump grants clemency to 30 people, including Jay-Z associate Emory Jones

Jones is among 30 people included in the president’s latest round of pardons and commutations.

President Donald Trump granted clemency to 30 people earlier this week, including Emory Jones, a longtime associate of Jay-Z who has worked as a Roc Nation executive. The Trump clemency grants were announced by White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, as the president’s clemency record continues to face questions about who has benefited.

Johnson said Trump took the action on Thursday. Among the recipients was Jones, who served nearly 16 years in federal prison on drug charges and was released in 2010 after Jay-Z wrote a letter to a judge seeking a reduction in his sentence.

Jones later worked as an executive at Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, and co-founded the Paper Planes clothing brand.

The new clemency actions also included a former Philadelphia union leader convicted of bribery and a former Navy sailor imprisoned for firearms offenses, Reuters reported, citing The New York Times.

Trump has granted pardons or commutations to more than 1,700 people since returning to the White House in January 2025, many of them tied to individuals who were convicted of crimes related to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. His clemency record has been a recurring source of debate, particularly over whether the power has been used broadly enough to address sentencing disparities and mass incarceration.

In December 2025, Rep. Ayanna Pressley released an analysis arguing that Trump’s clemency decisions had disproportionately benefited white and wealthy recipients. The Massachusetts Democrat called on the administration to use clemency to help people from communities disproportionately affected by the criminal legal system.

Johnson herself received clemency from Trump during his first term. He commuted her life sentence in 2018 after she had served more than two decades for a nonviolent drug offense, then granted her a full pardon in 2020. Trump later named her his pardon czar.