With US President Donald Trump in office, a growing number of white-collar offenders, including former FTX CEO SBF, are exploring avenues to obtain clemency. However, according to William Livolsi, executive director of the White Collar Support Group, a national advocacy group that advocates for fairer post-sentence policies, the chances of obtaining conviction clemency remain slim as the backlog of pardon applications continues to grow. In contrast to Ross Ulbricht, the freed Silk Road founder of the dark web, Mr. Livolsi says: "The comparison between Ulbricht and SBF is not entirely straightforward. Both are, of course, well-known figures in the crypto space, but their individual cases and the verdicts they received are very different. Moreover, Ulbricht's clemency is openly linked to the campaign promises made by President Trump to his political supporters." The pardon attorney's office has established a formal application process for clemency requests, which begins with a clemency application and ends with a formal recommendation from the pardon attorney. The president then makes a decision on each case. However, after the application has been submitted, the otherwise seemingly simple process has become extremely opaque. According to Livolsi, the pardon attorney's office has a backlog of about 10,000 applications; for a long time, the role of the pardon attorney's office "has been grossly overlooked," and instead presidents have granted pardons based on political connections, media pressure, or personal interests.