Biden Clemency List: Commutations, Pardons, and Autopen Questions

President Joe Biden granted 4,245 individual acts of clemency during his single term, more than any U.S. president on record. The Biden clemency list is dominated by two late-term commutation waves for nonviolent offenders, but it also includes 37 federal death-row commutations, a pardon for his son Hunter, preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley, blanket pardons by proclamation for federal marijuana possession and for LGBTQ service members convicted under a repealed military law, and a small set of high-profile figures whose inclusion drew bipartisan criticism.¹

Of the 4,245 grants, 4,165 were commutations and 80 were pardons. Ninety-six percent came in Biden’s final fiscal year, and 2,490 came on a single day, January 17, 2025 — the most by any president in one day. Biden granted about 29% of the 14,867 clemency petitions he received, compared with roughly 5% under Obama and 1% under Trump.¹²

The December 2024 Home-Confinement Commutations

On December 12, 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. The commutations went to people released from federal prison to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House called it the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history to that point.³

Eligibility was applied categorically rather than case by case. Recipients had to have nonviolent, non-sexual, non-terrorism-related offenses, a low assessed risk of reoffending, no history of violent or gang-related prison conduct, and at least one year of good behavior on home confinement.⁴ Because no individualized review of the underlying crimes was conducted, several people with widely condemned convictions ended up on the list.

The January 2025 Drug-Sentence Commutations

Three days before leaving office, on January 17, 2025, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses who were serving sentences longer than they would receive under current law. Biden cited the crack-versus-powder cocaine sentencing disparity, which has disproportionately affected Black men, and other “discredited” sentencing enhancements.⁵⁶ The administration framed the action as an effort to “right historic wrongs, correct sentencing disparities, and provide deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities,” but did not publicly disclose the detailed qualifying criteria.⁷

Controversial Names on the December List

Three names from the home-confinement batch drew particular criticism.

Rita Crundwell

Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, was convicted in 2012 of embezzling more than $53 million from the small city — a theft the FBI has called the largest of public funds in U.S. history. She had been sentenced in 2013 to 19 years and seven months, and was released to home confinement in August 2021 with about eight years remaining. The City of Dixon called the commutation a “complete travesty of justice and a slap in the face for our entire community,” and Representative Darin LaHood of Illinois described it as “reckless.”⁸⁹

Michael Conahan

Conahan, a former Luzerne County, Pennsylvania judge, had been sentenced in 2011 to more than 17 years after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy in the “kids for cash” scandal. He and another judge accepted nearly $3 million in kickbacks for funneling roughly 2,300 juveniles into for-profit detention centers, often on false or inflated charges. He had about two years left on his sentence when the commutation came through. Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide after being detained in the scheme, called the commutation “devastating.” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said Biden “got it absolutely wrong” and that Conahan “deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”⁴¹⁰¹¹

Paul Daugerdas

Daugerdas, a former tax partner at Jenkens & Gilchrist, had been sentenced in 2014 to 15 years for designing and marketing fraudulent tax shelters that generated over $7 billion in fake deductions and cost the government more than $1.6 billion. Prosecutors called him “the most prolific, pernicious and utterly unrepentant tax cheat in United States history.”¹²

The 37 Federal Death-Row Commutations

On December 23, 2024, Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Biden, who opposes the federal death penalty, said he could not “in good conscience” allow a new administration to resume executions he had halted through a 2021 moratorium.¹³

Three men were excluded because their cases involved terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder: Dylann Roof (2015 Charleston church shooting), Robert Bowers (2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting), and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (2013 Boston Marathon bombing). Those who received commutations included Len Davis, a former New Orleans police officer convicted of hiring a hitman to kill a witness, and Brandon Council, convicted of killing two women during a bank robbery.¹³¹⁴

After taking office, President Trump ordered the 37 held in conditions “consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes,” and the Bureau of Prisons began planning transfers to the ADX supermax in Florence, Colorado. On February 11, 2026, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction blocking the transfers, finding the Bureau’s redesignation process was a “sham” because the decision had been made before review began. That litigation remains ongoing.¹⁵¹⁶

The Hunter Biden Pardon

On December 1, 2024, Biden issued a “full and unconditional” pardon to his son, Robert Hunter Biden, covering any federal offenses committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024. It swept in Hunter Biden’s Delaware jury conviction on three gun-related charges — for lying about drug use on a form when purchasing a handgun — and his guilty plea to federal tax crimes in California, together involving six felonies and six misdemeanors.¹⁷¹⁸

Biden said his son had been “singled out” and that “raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.” Special Counsel David Weiss, who prosecuted the cases, rejected any claim of selective prosecution. President-elect Trump called the pardon “an abuse and miscarriage of justice,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said it “irreparably damaged” trust in the justice system, and several Democrats objected as well. Biden had said repeatedly earlier in 2024 that he would not pardon his son.¹⁸

Preemptive Pardons on the Final Day

On January 19, 2025, Biden issued preemptive pardons — clemency for people who had not been charged with or convicted of any crime — aimed at shielding recipients from what he described as potential “politically motivated prosecutions” by the incoming Trump administration. Biden said the pardons “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing.”¹⁹

Recipients included:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s chief medical adviser, for any offenses arising from his government service between 2014 and January 2025.
General Mark Milley, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for any offenses — including under military law — related to his service as Army chief of staff or Joint Chiefs chairman during the same period.
Members, staff, and witnesses of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, including Capitol and Metropolitan police officers who testified, for any offenses related to the committee’s work.
Biden family members Francis Biden, James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, and John T. Owens, for any nonviolent federal offenses committed between January 2014 and January 2025.

²⁰

Categorical Pardons by Proclamation

Biden also used proclamations to pardon entire categories of people. These class-wide actions are not counted in the 4,245 individual total.

Federal Marijuana Possession

In October 2022, Biden pardoned all people with federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana, affecting more than 6,500 people. In December 2023, he expanded the pardon to include attempted possession, use of marijuana, and possession on federal property. It did not cover possession with intent to distribute, offenses involving other controlled substances, or non-citizens not lawfully present in the United States.²¹²²

LGBTQ Military Service Members

On June 26, 2024, Biden pardoned service members convicted by court-martial under the former Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for consensual, private sexual acts between adults. Article 125 was on the books from 1951 until its repeal in 2013. The pardon excluded offenses involving minors, force, or other aggravating circumstances. It did not automatically expunge records or change discharge status, but recipients could apply for a certificate of pardon and use it to seek a discharge upgrade.²³²⁴

Diplomatic and Historical Pardons

Biden used the pardon power for several diplomatic and historical purposes. In September 2023, he pardoned three individuals convicted of acting as unregistered agents of Iran or illegally exporting technology to that country as part of a prisoner exchange. In July 2024, he pardoned Vadim Konoshchenok, convicted of conspiracy to violate export controls and defraud the United States, as part of a swap that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. In December 2023, he pardoned Alex Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman convicted of money laundering conspiracy, in a deal that freed 10 detained Americans and Venezuelan political prisoners.²⁰

He also issued a posthumous pardon to Marcus Garvey, the Black nationalist leader convicted in 1923 of mail fraud, and pardoned Abraham Bolden Sr., the first Black Secret Service agent assigned to a presidential detail, who was convicted in 1964 on charges he long maintained were fabricated in retaliation for reporting misconduct by white agents.²⁰

Why So Many Grants Skipped the Pardon Attorney

The volume was made possible by sidestepping the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which traditionally conducts individualized review involving as many as seven levels of scrutiny, including input from the U.S. Attorney’s office that prosecuted the case. Only about 1,118 commutations and 66 pardons went through that standard review, meaning roughly 72% of Biden’s clemency actions were issued outside the normal vetting process.²⁵

Biden had pledged during the 2020 campaign to create an independent clemency board separate from the Justice Department. That board never materialized. When the mass commutations came, they relied on broad categorical filters rather than the individualized review that either the existing system or a new board would have provided.

The Autopen Challenge

After leaving office, Biden’s grants faced a novel political challenge. President Trump declared on social media in 2025 that Biden’s pardons were “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT” because Biden had allegedly used an autopen rather than signing by hand. Trump repeated a version of the claim in December 2025, asserting that 92% of Biden’s signatures were unauthorized.²⁶

Legal scholars have broadly rejected the claim. The Constitution does not require pardons to be in writing at all, let alone signed by hand, according to Stanford Law professor Bernadette Meyler. The Office of Legal Counsel concluded in 2005 that mechanical or staff-affixed signatures are valid for official presidential documents, and an 1869 federal court ruling established that “when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it.” No court has entertained a challenge to Biden’s clemency grants on autopen grounds.²⁷²⁸

1
Pew Research Center. Biden Granted More Acts of Clemency Than Any Prior President
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Past Clemency Action and Statistics
3
The New York Times. Biden Pardons and Commutes Sentences of Nearly 1,500
4
Politico. Biden Clemency Includes Former Kids-for-Cash Judge
5
NPR. Biden Pardons and Commutations for Drug Sentences
6
NBC News. Biden Sets Record for Most Pardons and Commutations
7
ABC News. Biden Pardons 2,500 Nonviolent Drug Offenders
8
CBS News Chicago. President Biden Commutes Sentence of Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell
9
U.S. House of Representatives. LaHood Statement on Commutation of Rita Crundwell
10
Democracy Now. Kids for Cash
11
Penn Capital-Star. Shapiro Says Biden Commuting Kids-for-Cash Judge’s Sentence Absolutely Wrong
12
NBC News. Biden’s Clemency Pardon List Includes Former Elected Official, Lawyers
13
NPR. Biden Death Row Commutations
14
The American Presidency Project. Fact Sheet: President Biden Commutes the Sentences of 37 Individuals on Death Row
15
Brennan Center for Justice. Administration’s Plan Seeks to Undo Biden’s Federal Death Row Commutations
16
PBS NewsHour. Trump Administration Can’t Move Former Death Row Inmates to Supermax Prison for Now
17
The American Presidency Project. Statement on the Presidential Pardon for R. Hunter Biden
18
BBC News. Biden Pardons Son Hunter
19
PBS NewsHour. Biden Pardons Fauci, Milley and Jan. 6 Committee Members
20
U.S. Department of Justice. Pardons Granted by President Joseph Biden
21
Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. President Biden’s Pardons: What It Means for Cannabis and Criminal Justice Reform
22
Federal Register. Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of Marijuana
23
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Presidential Proclamation on Violations of Article 125 UCMJ
24
Courthouse News Service. Biden Pardons LGBTQ Service Members Convicted Under Defunct Military Policy
25
Cafe.com. Pardons Without Process
26
Democracy Docket. Trump Claims Former President Joe Biden’s Pardons Are Invalid
27
Stanford Law School. Why Trump Can’t Void Biden’s Pardons Because of Autopen
28
PBS NewsHour. Fact Checking Trump’s Claim That Biden Pardons Are Void