Biden Announces Largest Single-Day Clemency Grant for 1,500 Americans

Joe Biden’s administration has granted clemency to 1,500 criminals, and pardoned a further 39 in the biggest single-day act of clemency in modern history, the White House announced on Thursday.

• Biden commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 convicted criminals.
• He pardoned 39 individuals convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Biden has granted the most pardons and clemencies to convicted felons of any United States president. In a statement issued on Thursday, the White House drew attention to Biden’s “bold and unprecedented” history of granting clemency, especially for offenses regarding drug use and the military’s former laws forbidding homosexuality.

By comparison, President Donald Trump granted 237 clemencies, only 2 percent of all requests, during his four-year term. And President Barack Obama granted clemency 1,927 times during his eight years, including 330 in a single day.

covid corruption: The 1,500 whose sentences were lessened had been released from prison and put on home confinement during the covid-19 pandemic, and have now served out home confinement sentences for at least one year. Because prisons were hot spots for the spread of coronavirus, certain prisoners were released and kept under home confinement.

This is another example of the ramifications of the covid-19 response being worse than the disease itself.

On the offensive: “While today’s announcement marks important progress, there is more to come,” said the White House. Since Biden announced the pardon of his son Hunter Biden on December 1, Politico reported that he is considering preemptively pardoning his political allies.

Learn more: Read “Apparently, the Biden Crime Family Is Above the Law.”