Fact check: How many pardons did President Biden grant in 2024?

1. How many clemency actions did Biden announce in 2024 — and what did they include?

News outlets reported two distinct 2024 clemency announcements with specific breakdowns: an April 24 announcement granting 11 pardons and commuting five sentences for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, and a December announcement that reportedly pardoned 39 people and commuted nearly 1,500 sentences, described as one of the largest single clemency actions in modern U.S. history. The April package was framed around Second Chance Month and racial disparities; the December package was described as a sweeping, record-scale effort ^{[1] [3] [4] [2]}.

2. Calculating the 2024 total pardons — arithmetic and caveats

Adding the two explicit pardon counts reported in April ^[5] and December ^[6] yields 50 pardons in 2024. This arithmetic is straightforward given the sources’ explicit counts, but it assumes no other smaller, separate pardons were issued and reported elsewhere in 2024. The April and December announcements are confirmed by multiple outlets; however, the reporting notes for April and for the December sweep focus on those batches rather than claiming they exhausted all clemency actions for the calendar year ^{[1] [2]}.

3. What about commutations — the larger clemency category in 2024?

The April action commuted five sentences, and the December action commuted nearly 1,500 sentences, producing an aggregate around 1,505 commutations for 2024 if both actions are combined. Reporters highlighted that the December commutations represented an unusually large, systemic intervention aimed largely at people serving long sentences for nonviolent offenses or whose punishments reflected past sentencing practices. The magnitude of the December commutations dwarfs prior single-day actions in modern history ^{[1] [2]}.

4. What do sources agree on — and where do they differ?

Multiple outlets concur on the April 24 numbers (11 pardons, five commutations) and on the December characterization of a mass clemency package (39 pardons, nearly 1,500 commutations). The differences are mostly in framing: some reports emphasize racial justice and sentencing disparities as motivations; others emphasize the record scale of the December action. No source here disputes the numerical counts for the two announced actions, but several caution that totals across the year depend on whether additional, smaller grants occurred outside these two packages ^{[1] [3] [2]}.

5. Sources and potential agendas — what to watch for in coverage

Coverage from AP, Reuters, The New York Times, and government-oriented outlets all supply consistent numeric claims for the two packages, but each outlet highlights different aspects. Outlets emphasizing justice reform foreground racial disparities and Second Chance Month; others emphasize the record-breaking scale and policy implications. Each outlet’s framing can signal priorities: law-and-order critics may focus on scale and public-safety questions, while reform advocates stress remedying past sentencing inequities. Readers should note that framing choices can shape perceived intent and impact even when numerical facts align ^{[1] [3] [2]}.

6. Limitations, remaining questions, and missing context

The combined total of 50 pardons and about 1,505 commutations for 2024 relies only on the two well-documented packages; it does not account for any smaller, unreported clemency grants earlier or later in the year. The sources provided do not enumerate whether all pardons were federal and post-conviction formal pardons versus other forms of relief. Additional context such as individual case profiles, eligibility criteria used, and the long-term effects on recidivism and communities are not provided in the cited reporting and would be necessary for fuller assessment ^{[1] [3]}.

7. Bottom line for fact-checkers and readers seeking precision

Based on the reporting summarized here, the verifiable count of presidential pardons in 2024 is at least 50, coming from an April 11-pardon action and a December 39-pardon action; commutations in the year total roughly 1,505 when those two actions are combined. This assessment uses only the explicit numeric disclosures in the cited reports and flags that the real annual totals could differ if additional, separately announced clemency grants occurred outside those two widely reported packages ^{[1] [2]}.