The White House has released a list of 39 people who have been pardoned, saying the individuals committed either a “non-violent crime” or a “non-violent drug-related crime.” It does not name the specific crimes for which they are convicted.
Some of those pardoned were persons who had been released from prison. Many were veterans or had become community leaders or advocates.
The White House described one of the pardon recipients as a 49-year-old Virginia man who had a 21-year-old drug conviction. After serving his sentence, he earned a college degree, had a successful career in the US Army and Air Force, and volunteered for charities that support veterans.
He is known “as exceptionally hard-working, dedicated and trustworthy by those who know him,” the White House said in a statement, with brief biographies of all those pardoned.
The 1,499 commuted sentences include people who were under house arrest during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as those whose sentences were deemed too long by Biden because of outdated laws.
They “showed they deserve a second chance,” Biden said of those whose sentences he commuted.
Biden promised “more steps in the coming weeks.”
The president will leave the White House on January 20, 2025, when his successor, Donald Trump, will be inaugurated.
Biden has previously pardoned fewer people than most presidents in modern US history.
However, he has already issued several outright pardons in the past. It is a pardon for a wide range of people who fall under a category defined by the president.
In October 2022, Biden issued a blanket pardon for those convicted of simple possession of marijuana, and later expanded it to include other marijuana-related crimes.
Earlier this year, Biden issued another full pardon to military and veterans convicted of crimes based on their sexual orientation.
Biden’s decision earlier this month to pardon his son Hunter continued a trend of presidents on both sides of the US political divide — including Trump — pardoning people close to them.
The younger Biden was facing two felony counts of tax fraud and weapons offenses.
The move proved controversial as the outgoing president had previously ruled it out. But he said the cases against his son were politically motivated.
Biden also considered preemptively pardoning prominent critics of his successor, Trump, in an attempt to protect them from retribution after the president-elect takes office, but was reportedly concerned about the precedent it could set.
Also, on Thursday, a former FBI informant pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, leading to an investigation into the Biden family.
Alexander Smirnov admitted that he made up “fictions” about Biden and his sons receiving bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The statement was seized upon by Republicans in Congress as evidence of corruption.
According to the Pew Research Center, Trump issued 237 pardons during his first term in the White House. Among them are 143 pardons and 94 reduced sentences.
Many were in turmoil before he left office.
In recent days, Trump has promised on his first day in office to pardon people convicted of taking part in the January 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill in which his supporters tried to block the confirmation of Biden’s victory in the election.
He said this week that the pardon would be for people who were “non-violent”.
“The vast majority should not be in prison, and they have been seriously harmed,” he told Time magazine on Thursday.
