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| - On Dec. 13, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden announced one of the biggest acts of clemency in modern American history by pardoning 39 people and commuting the sentences of almost 1,500 others.
The act sparked discussion online over the power of the presidential pardon, and several conservative pundits on social media criticized Biden's actions as an overreach, claiming that he had pardoned more people than any other president in American history. The rumor was also shared by tech billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X.
However, that claim is false — Biden has not pardoned more people than any other U.S. president. The language of the presidential pardon is key to understanding why this is the case.
There are four key words to understanding the power: clemency, commutation, reprieve and pardon. Clemency refers to any action that a president takes to reduce or eliminate the legal penalties for a crime, and a pardon, commutation and reprieve are all forms of clemency. According to the White House Historical Association, a reprieve delays a sentence or punishment, a commutation reduces a sentence or punishment and a pardon fully releases a person from punishment and restores all civil liberties.
Another element is an amnesty, which is similar to a pardon but applies to a whole class of individuals.
Many of the posts claimed Biden had pardoned more than 8,000 people. This is not correct. According to the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney, Biden had issued pardons for just 65 people as of Dec. 12, 2024. A full list of those pardons is available elsewhere on OPA's website. Using the OPA statistics, most presidents have used the power more than Biden. For instance, Donald Trump issued 144 individual pardons during his four years in office, while Barack Obama issued 212 across eight years.
However, this is not the full story, because the figure of 65 does not include any blanket pardons, acts that pardon multiple people at once. In 2022 and 2023, Biden issued two blanket pardons addressing people convicted on certain marijuana charges. According to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, those pardons affected 6,577 people. Even with those blanket pardons, however, Biden had not pardoned 8,000 Americans.
Furthermore, even if Biden had pardoned 8,000 people, it would still not be the most pardons issued by a U.S. president. On his first day in office, President Jimmy Carter pardoned everyone who evaded the Vietnam War draft, albeit with some exemptions — 209,517 men were officially charged, according to Politico. Furthermore, President Andrew Johnson issued blanket pardons for most Confederate soldiers after the end of the Civil War (those acts of clemency did require an oath of allegiance, so some may wish not to count this).
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