How many commutations and clemencies has Biden approved compared with past presidents?

1. Biden’s raw totals — unprecedented volume

Biden’s clemency record is unprecedented by volume in the modern era: Pew’s analysis reports 4,245 acts of clemency in his term composed of 80 pardons and 4,165 commutations ^[1]. Multiple news outlets reported waves of large, single‑day actions — about 1,499 commutations and 39 pardons on Dec. 12, 2024, and about 2,500 commutations announced Jan. 17, 2025 — that together account for the bulk of those totals ^{[2] [4]}.

2. How reporters and official records describe the same events

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney posts detailed lists and dated warrants of Biden’s commutations and pardons, documenting batches released on many dates including Dec. 12, 2024 and Jan. 19, 2025 ^{[5] [6]}. NPR, Reuters and other outlets framed the January commutations as a major final push that, combined with December actions, allowed Biden to claim he had issued “more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history” ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Discrepancies in counting and reporting

Different outlets emphasize different numbers. Axios earlier reported far smaller totals (26 pardons, 135 commutations as of early December 2024) before the late‑term mass actions ^[3]. By contrast, later pieces — and the DOJ record updates — reflect the late December and January mass grants that dramatically changed Biden’s totals ^{[6] [5]}. Readers should note that timing matters: counts reported before the December and January actions are much lower than post‑action tallies ^{[3] [2]}.

4. What the mass commutations covered

Reporting and White House statements said the mass commutations targeted people serving lengthy sentences tied to outdated drug‑sentencing practices (notably crack vs. powder disparities) and people released to home confinement during the pandemic under the CARES Act whose remaining terms were converted to time served ^{[2] [7]}. Reuters and NPR emphasized the clemencies were aimed at non‑violent drug offenders and those sentenced under policies now seen as excessive ^{[4] [2]}.

5. Political reactions and competing narratives

Advocates and many Democrats hailed the clemencies as corrective, noting historic sentencing disparities and mass incarceration harms ^{[2] [8]}. Republicans and some critics framed the mass, sometimes automatic, commutations as reckless or unfair to victims — for example, criticisms from Sen. Tom Cotton’s office described the December 1,500 commutations as “blanket” and insufficiently reviewed ^[9]. These competing viewpoints are present across reporting and are part of the public debate ^{[2] [9]}.

6. Comparisons with prior presidents

Prior presidents who used clemency aggressively are frequently invoked for context: Barack Obama’s 1,715 commutations and final‑day record of 330 commutations in 2017 were earlier high watermarks; Biden’s late‑term mass grants surpassed those modern benchmarks to become the largest totals on record in the Pew analysis ^{[10] [1]}. That means both the pace and scale of Biden’s actions break with recent presidential norms ^{[1] [10]}.

7. Limits of available reporting and open questions

Available sources document the number of grants and the dates but leave open some forensic and legal questions in public reporting. For example, detailed case‑by‑case review processes and criteria for inclusion in the mass lists are described variably across outlets; the exact breakdown of every commutation cohort (CARES Act releases versus crack‑sentencing cases) is summarized but not exhaustively tabulated in the sources provided ^{[5] [7] [2]}. If you want a line‑by‑line accounting, the DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney publishes the warrants and lists that are the primary record ^{[5] [6]}.

8. Bottom line

By multiple authoritative tallies and news accounts, Biden’s four‑year clemency actions — dominated by several large mass commutations in December 2024 and January 2025 — put him above any prior president in total pardons and commutations, with Pew reporting 4,245 acts of clemency (80 pardons, 4,165 commutations) and news outlets reporting the decisive large batches of roughly 1,499 and ~2,500 commutations that produced the record totals ^{[1] [2] [4]}.