If you are an ordinary citizen trying to obtain a presidential pardon, it’s not an overnight process and can take years. You will be investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Treasury Department, and probably other government agencies. You will be interrogated by the FBI with a barrage of questions that goes as far as your family genealogy. Trying to hire a federal attorney or a criminal attorney for help is a waste of time. Your only option then is to pursue amnesty on your own. Character letters from the sheriff, deputy sheriffs, and chief of police are an asset. 

My knowledge of this process came from me going through years of this ordeal with success. On Dec. 23, 1982, I was granted a full and unconditional pardon from President Ronald Reagan.

As great as this country is, voters can elect a president who can grant a pardon when he probably can’t meet the moral and truthful qualifications to receive one himself.

Charles Miller 

Waynesville