How does the Office of the Pardon Attorney process Biden-era clemency applications?
Executive summary
The Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) is the Justice Department office that historically processes clemency petitions and forwards recommendations to the president; during the Biden presidency the administration used both OPA-reviewed petitions and broad proclamations or targeted executive grants to issue large-scale commutations and pardons — including roughly 2,490 commutations in January 2025 and multiple proclamation pardons for marijuana offenses (White House and DOJ records) [1] [2]. Reporting and analyses show Biden’s clemency record was the largest by individual acts in modern history and included both case-by-case OPA work and actions that bypassed or supplemented normal procedures [3] [4].
1. How the formal process is supposed to work — OPA’s role
The Justice Department’s OPA is the formal intake and review body for clemency petitions: applicants submit requests to OPA, which investigates criminal records, sentencing, and rehabilitation, and then recommends approval, denial, or commutation to the White House for presidential action, per DOJ material explaining how to apply for clemency [2]. OPA maintains public lists of pardons and commutations granted during an administration, documenting dates and categories of action [5] [6].
2. Biden-era clemency at scale — record-setting commutations and proclamations
The Biden administration used multiple vehicles: individual grants, large commutation batches, and proclamations forgiving classes of offenses. In January 2025 the White House announced commutations for nearly 2,500 people convicted of non‑violent drug offenses, and earlier proclamations pardoned certain federal marijuana convictions (White House and DOJ statements) [1] [2]. Journalists and analysts recorded that Biden granted more acts of clemency than any prior president in modern records, with these mass actions a major factor [3] [4].
3. When the president bypasses the routine OPA pathway
Multiple sources note that some Biden clemency actions did not follow the traditional multi‑year petition-review timeline and instead were effected by presidential proclamation or targeted executive grants — for example, proclamations in October 2022 and December 2023 for marijuana offenses and an executive grant for Hunter Biden in December 2024 [2] [7]. Pew’s analysis explicitly says Biden sometimes “circumvented” the formal process, similar to past presidents who used proclamations or direct grants [3].
4. Why the administration justified mass commutations
The White House framed the January 2025 commutations as corrective: the action targeted sentencing disparities (notably crack vs. powder cocaine sentencing) and “outdated sentencing enhancements,” aiming to equalize historic inequalities and reduce disproportionately long terms compared with current law and practice [1]. The White House noted that the commutations affected non‑violent drug offenders who would likely face far lower sentences today [1].
5. Transparency, lists and public record — what’s available
DOJ and White House sites publish lists and dates of pardons and commutations, and the OPA pages include "Pardons Granted" and "Commutations Granted" listings for the Biden years [5] [6]. The White House also released a detailed recipient list and statements explaining rationale for categories of commutations and examples of individual recipients [8] [9].
6. Critiques and competing perspectives in reporting
Reporting presents competing views: advocates and some lawmakers praised large-scale commutations as long‑overdue corrections to mass-incarceration-era policies [1] [10]. At the same time, independent analyses and commentators — and some reporting on procedural irregularities — emphasize that using proclamations and direct grants can sidestep OPA’s vetting and raise transparency questions; Pew and other outlets noted Biden’s partial circumvention of the formal process [3]. Additional reporting raised concerns about subsequent logistical and legal complications for recipients, such as “collateral consequences” and administrative follow-through [11].
7. Limits of available reporting and open questions
Available sources document the outcomes, dates, and the administration’s stated rationales and note that proclamations were used, but do not provide a full internal timeline of every OPA review or the step‑by‑step file history for each mass action; detailed internal memos and deliberations behind specific deviations from routine review are not included in these public summaries (not found in current reporting). Investigative disputes about delegation or record‑keeping around specific late‑term actions appear in later and partisan outlets but are not fully documented in the cited DOJ/White House publications [12] [3].
8. Bottom line for readers
The OPA remained the formal mechanism for reviewing clemency petitions, but the Biden administration paired that pathway with large-scale commutations, proclamations, and selective direct grants — producing the largest tally of individual clemency acts in modern history while prompting praise for corrective justice and questions about transparency and process [1] [3] [4].