Is Now the Time for a Federal Expungement Process?

Okay Nightmare Success lifters, we are back with something different today. Instead of one guest, I got to talk with two good friends from the White Collar Support Group about a topic that affects every single federal ex-felon in America. We’re diving into federal expungement and why it doesn’t exist when almost every state has some version of it.

The Reality Check That Started Everything

Jeff Grant, co-founder of the White Collar Support Group and a reinstated attorney, was attending a webinar moderated by Doug Berman at Ohio State Law when something stopped him cold. One of the panelists, Rachel Barkow from NYU Law, made an offhand comment that changed everything.

“There’s nothing preventing Congress from passing a federal expungement law,” she said during the discussion.

Jeff couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “Did I hear what I just heard? You know, I couldn’t rewind it. But I did call her up the next day. And I said, is that true? And she said, oh, yeah, it’s true. But no one’s ever gotten this off the ground.”

That phone call launched what’s now called the Federal Expungement Initiative. Rachel agreed to co-found it if Jeff could get Mark Osler and Doug Berman on board. Both legal experts jumped in immediately. The timing felt right with all the conversation around criminal justice reform and the massive wave of presidential pardons.

Why Federal Felons Get Left Behind

Here’s something that blew my mind when we started digging into this. Do a quick search and you’ll find that all 50 states except Alaska have some form of expungement process. But if you’re a federal felon? Nothing. Zero options except the nearly impossible presidential pardon route.

Drew Chapin, who’s been out about two and a half years and now runs his own digital discovery firm, put it perfectly when we talked about how he introduces himself at places like Yale and Berkeley where he speaks to students.

“When I walk into these classrooms, really my mission is to help people understand how somebody can go into a situation like in my story, where I was a startup founder who started a company with every good intention and had no plans to go astray or to make any kind of the poor choices that I did,” Drew told me.

But here’s the thing Drew pointed out that really hit home. “I’m not an ex-felon. I’m a felon, you know. That status remains and even if I were to be somebody who received a presidential pardon, I would still have that record and I would still have that felon label.”

That’s the federal reality. No exit ramp. Ever.

What Real Redemption Looks Like

Jeff knows firsthand what having an official second chance feels like. He went through the grueling process of getting his law license reinstated after his conviction and incarceration. The difference it made went way beyond his career.

“That was like a hand being passed over me that this guy’s okay, right? And that’s affected me in so many ways, not just with my self-esteem. I think that my daughters are proud for me to be their father again,” Jeff explained. “There’s a big difference, you know, for my daughters to be able to say, the difference between this is my father, you know, he went to prison or this is my father as a lawyer.”

But law license reinstatement is rare. Almost impossible for most people. What Jeff and the team are pushing for would create a pathway for thousands of federal felons who’ve served their time and proved themselves in the community.

The Long Game Ahead

This isn’t some quick fix fantasy. The Federal Expungement Initiative team is thinking seven years post-release before someone could even qualify. You’d need steady employment, volunteer work, community engagement. Real proof of rehabilitation over time.

“It takes the, it makes the entire community somewhat responsible. And that culture change happens slowly and it happens over time,” Jeff said about the long timeline. “It will become like a regular part of the way that things are handled. And it’ll be long after the three of us are forgotten.”

The team has grown to include policy experts, academics, and the pro bono department at Paul Weiss law firm. They’re planning to approach senators on the Judiciary Committee about sponsoring a bill within the next few months.

Building Something Bigger

What started as a conversation between people who’ve lived this experience has turned into something with real political momentum. The White Collar Support Group meets every Monday night on Zoom with about 40 people typically joining from their 1,600 total members.

“I for the life of me, I don’t know how people don’t know about us,” Jeff said about the support group. “We don’t charge anything. We’re all volunteer. We’re doing this out of love and self healing.”

Drew’s approach to his felon status shows how community support can transform what feels like a permanent barrier into something different. “I disarm it in a way by owning it. A lot of people live in fear of, oh man, I made these poor choices in the past. I went through the criminal justice system, whatever that means for that person. And I don’t want people to find out,” Drew explained.

Instead of hiding from it, Drew talks about his experience as his “earned secret” that makes him different from other candidates when he’s speaking to potential employers or clients.

The Bigger Picture

The federal expungement push isn’t just about white collar defendants, even though that’s the community leading the charge. “We’re doing this for anybody and everybody who has been convicted of a federal crime,” Jeff made clear. Some violent crimes would likely never qualify, but the goal is creating an exit path for people who’ve genuinely turned their lives around.

Right now, there are 80 to 85 million Americans with some kind of criminal record. For federal felons, that record never goes away no matter what they accomplish afterward. The initiative would change that fundamental unfairness.

It’s a long shot, but then again, most things worth doing are. These guys are used to people telling them something can’t be done. When you get out of federal prison, everything is “you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” Maybe that’s exactly why they’re the right people to push through this particular barrier.