How many federal drug offenders received clemency under each recent president (Obama, Trump, Biden)?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Across the three most recent presidencies, clemency for federal drug offenders shifted from a targeted campaign under Barack Obama to a far smaller share under Donald Trump and then to an unprecedented mass action under Joe Biden: Obama issued 1,715 commutations (many for drug sentences) and 212 pardons (1,927 clemency actions total) [1], Trump issued roughly 237 clemency actions in his first term with only a handful directly benefiting drug convicts [2] [3], and Biden commuted nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses in a single action and has exceeded 4,000 total clemency actions by January 2025 [4] [5] [2].
1. Obama’s approach: programmatic commutations aimed at drug sentences
President Barack Obama’s clemency record in absolute terms was large and explicitly tied to drug-sentencing reform: his administration granted 1,715 commutations and 212 pardons for a total of 1,927 clemency acts, and the Justice Department’s “Clemency Initiative” and related reviews were designed to reduce long federal drug sentences tied to harsh crack-era penalties [1] [6] [7]. Reporting and advocacy groups repeatedly noted that a substantial share of Obama’s commutations were for people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, and the administration actively encouraged eligible federal prisoners to apply [1] [7]. Precise tabulations of how many of Obama’s total clemencies were exclusively “drug offenders” vary across contemporaneous accounts, but the policy orientation and major share of commutations make that connection explicit in the record [1] [7].
2. Trump’s record: relatively few drug beneficiaries amid high-profile pardons
Donald Trump’s first-term clemency numbers were far smaller on the drug front: across his first term he issued roughly 237 clemency actions (about 143 pardons and 94 commutations) [2] [1], and congressional and watchdog reporting found that only a very small number of his clemency grants benefited people convicted of drug offenses — one House office counted as few as nine such cases amid tens of thousands of federal prisoners for drug crimes [3]. Trump’s clemency pattern emphasized high-profile and politically connected recipients and at times bypassed the traditional Office of the Pardon Attorney review, a practice critics said reduced transparency and increased favoritism in who received relief [8] [3].
3. Biden’s surge: the largest single-day commutation for nonviolent drug offenders
President Joe Biden used the final days of his term to deliver the largest single-day clemency action in modern history, commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and, by January 2025, surpassing 4,000 total clemency grants across his administration [4] [5] [2]. The White House framed the mass commutation as corrective — addressing crack-versus-powder cocaine disparities and outdated sentencing enhancements — while critics raised questions about breadth, selection criteria, and political timing [4] [5]. Coverage also noted that many of the commuted prisoners were already serving shortened terms or were on home confinement under pandemic-era rules, a point used by commentators who described Biden’s grants as “wide but shallow” compared with deeper sentence reductions under earlier campaigns [9].
4. How to interpret these numbers — policy, politics and limits of available counts
The headline figures—Obama’s 1,715 commutations, Trump’s ~237 clemency acts in his first term, and Biden’s nearly 2,500 drug commutations in a single action—capture different policy choices: Obama launched a programmatic review for drug cases [1] [6], Trump prioritized selective high-profile pardons and few drug recipients [2] [3], and Biden delivered a broad corrective sweep for nonviolent drug convicts late in his term [4] [5]. Sources disagree on fine-grained counts of “drug offenders” within each total; where reporting lacks a definitive breakdown, the public record ties Obama and Biden most clearly to drug-relief efforts while showing Trump’s drug beneficiaries were minimal [1] [4] [3]. The political agendas behind each administration’s use of clemency—criminal-justice reform, political patronage, or corrective legacy-building—shape both who received relief and how outlets reported the impact [8] [5] [3].