But Trump, in his second term, has begun to expand the pardon power both in nature and in scale. This spring, he fired Liz Oyer, a career official in charge of the pardon office, after she refused to recommend reinstating gun-ownership rights to Mel Gibson. Trump then appointed a keen loyalist, Ed Martin, to lead the office. A kind of pardon economy has bloomed: in May, the Wall Street Journal reported that pardon seekers were “shelling out to hire lawyers and lobbyists who tout access to those in the president’s inner circle.” In March,Trump pardoned an electric-truck entrepreneur named Trevor Milton, who was convicted on fraud charges. The President said that Milton had been “highly recommended” to him by “top-of-the-line people”; Milton had also contributed to Trump’s and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,’s campaigns.