How many pardons did Franklin D. Roosevelt issue during his presidency?

1. FDR’s clemency record in plain numbers

Published summaries and secondary reporting commonly attribute about 2,819 individual pardons to Franklin D. Roosevelt and add that he commuted hundreds of sentences and granted other clemency acts, bringing his total acts of clemency into the several‑thousand range ^[1]. That figure is repeated in popular summaries and is derived from Department of Justice counts cited by outlets compiling presidential pardon totals ^[1].

2. Why FDR’s totals look so large — tenure and mass proclamations

Two structural reasons explain FDR’s high totals: he served longer than any other president (four terms) and used proclamations that pardoned classes of people. For example, Roosevelt’s Proclamation 2068 granted a full pardon to persons convicted under certain World War I‑era statutes, an action that by proclamation could cover many unnamed individuals ^[3]. Modern tallies differ depending on whether they count each named individual, each clemency warrant, or include unnamed members of a mass pardon ^[2].

3. Data sources and counting problems: DOJ, aggregators, and third parties

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney maintains clemency warrants and publishes statistics, but it also warns that its records do not capture every category of grant (notably class proclamations and some cases not processed through the office) and that historical definitions of fiscal years shifted, complicating time‑series counts ^[2]. Independent compilations — including websites and journalistic pieces that cite DOJ data — fill gaps but can apply different counting rules, producing slightly different headline numbers ^{[1] [4]}.

4. What “pardon” means here and related clemency types

Sources distinguish pardons from other clemency actions such as commutations or remissions; many accounts presenting FDR’s totals combine pardons with commutations and other acts to give a fuller picture of clemency output ^[1]. Aggregators like POTUS.com present combined tallies (pardons, commutations, rescissions) while ThoughtCo and other explainers rely on DOJ lists that may separate categories ^{[4] [5]}.

5. Alternative counts and why you might see different numbers

Some tabulations list FDR as issuing more pardons per year on average than any other president (Ballotpedia’s long‑run overview cites an annual average figure when spanning fiscal years 1902–2025) — but that is an average, not a single total number, and is sensitive to the period and categories included ^{[6] [7]}. Other sites and media pieces may report the raw DOJ number of 2,819 pardons and then add 488 commutations and other acts to reach a higher total — again showing how methodology changes reported totals ^[1].

6. What the Office of the Pardon Attorney itself says — limits to certainty

The DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney emphasizes that its historical documentation does not include certain types of grants (for example, individuals unnamed in mass proclamations or those processed outside the office), and that the statistics come from counts of clemency warrants they maintain — meaning any headline number should be read against those archival limits ^[2].

7. How journalists and researchers should treat the number

Reporters and researchers should cite the specific counting method: quote the DOJ warrant‑based count if referring to documented clemency warrants, or explicitly state when a total includes mass proclamations or combined clemency types ^{[2] [1]}. Where possible, name the source used (e.g., Department of Justice, POTUS.com, Ballotpedia) because each applies different inclusion rules ^{[2] [4] [7]}.

8. Bottom line for your question

Available reporting most commonly attributes about 2,819 pardons to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and notes additional commutations and clemency actions that push his total clemency acts into the several thousands; however, official DOJ records have documented‑coverage limits ^{[1] [2]}. If you need a particular definition (e.g., “individual named pardons only” vs. “all clemency acts including mass proclamations”), say which methodology you prefer and I can extract the corresponding figure from the provided sources ^{[2] [1]}.