Why is President Obama very unlikely to pardon Hillary Clinton? Clinton, who has been accused of mishandling classified information, has not applied to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for executive clemency. The process that I put in place is not going to vary depending on how close I get to the election. So it's going to be reviewed by the pardon attorney, it will be reviewed by my White House counsel, and I'm going to, as best as I can, make these decisions based on the merits, as opposed to political considerations. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed last week that Obama hasn’t changed that philosophy after the election.