Who got pardens by biden in 2024 that are controversial
Executive summary
President Joe Biden’s 2024 clemency actions that provoked the most controversy centered on a high-profile, preemptive pardon of his son Hunter Biden; a large, year-end sweep of pardons and commutations affecting thousands (including hundreds of COVID-era home confinement cases and nonviolent drug offenders); and a series of diplomatic prisoner-exchange pardons that freed politically sensitive figures — all of which drew sharp partisan attacks and questions about process and precedent [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The Hunter Biden pardon: promise broken, political blowback
Biden’s December 2024 preemptive pardon for his son Hunter — covering “any potential federal crimes” from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024 — became the lightning rod for criticism because the president had repeatedly said he would not pardon his son, and the move immediately drew denunciations from Republicans and some Democrats who argued it undercut “no one is above the law” messaging and raised questions about personal self-interest and abuse of power [3] [5] [1].
2. The December sweep: mass clemency and the largest single-day action
On Dec. 12, 2024, Biden issued what was described as the “largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history,” pardoning 39 people and commuting roughly 1,499 sentences — many tied to home confinement during COVID-19 or deemed excessive by modern standards — while separately ordering category-wide marijuana pardons earlier; critics argued the scale was politically timed in a lame-duck window, while supporters framed it as corrective justice for outdated sentencing policies [3] [1] [2].
3. Diplomatic and prisoner-exchange pardons that inflamed foreign-policy critics
Several clemency actions tied to diplomacy — including the pardon-and-release of figures such as Alex Saab in a Venezuela swap and reports of prisoners exchanged with Iran and Russia — stirred controversy because they involved accused money-launderers or politically indicted foreigners whose releases were portrayed by opponents as concessions to authoritarian regimes, while the administration defended those moves as freeing Americans and resolving hostage disputes [1] [3].
4. Death-row commutations and sentencing philosophy
Biden’s commutations in late 2024 — notably commuting 37 of 40 federal death-row inmates to life without parole — underscored an ideological divide over capital punishment; advocates hailed a near-emptying of federal death row as a moral corrective, whereas opponents framed it as overreach that denied victims’ families full legal closure and bypassed congressional debate on sentencing policy [4].
5. Process questions: autopen, timing, and perceived favoritism
Beyond who received clemency, procedural issues fueled controversy: critics seized on Biden’s use of an autopen for signing clemency documents and on the concentration of acts in the final weeks of the presidency, presenting these as signs of opacity or hurry; fact-checking and legal analysis, however, noted longstanding DOJ and judicial precedents that autopen-signed clemency documents can be legally valid and that end-of-term clemency is a common presidential practice [6] [4].
6. Politics, narratives, and competing agendas
Republican critics framed many pardons as evidence of corruption or favoritism — including House Oversight statements calling pardons for family members part of a “Biden Crime Family” narrative — while many Democrats and clemency advocates emphasized restorative justice, correcting racial disparities, and protecting Americans from politicized prosecutions; reporting shows both the factual record of who was pardoned and the reality that the choices served starkly different political purposes for each side [7] [5] [8].
Conclusion: the controversies are both specific and symbolic
The most contested names in 2024 were Hunter Biden and the beneficiaries of the December mass-clemency actions and diplomatic swaps; the debate therefore combines concrete concerns about favoritism and timing with broader ideological fights over punishment, mercy, and presidential powers — a tension that ensured these pardons would reverberate in courts, Congress, and the 2025 political landscape [1] [3] [4].