Which celebrities or business leaders received presidential pardons from Biden and what were the crimes?
Executive summary
President Biden issued thousands of acts of clemency during his term — including blanket proclamations pardoning people convicted of certain federal marijuana offenses (October 2022 and December 2023) and large December 2024 actions that pardoned 39 people and commuted roughly 1,500 sentences [1] [2]. In his final days he also granted a flurry of individualized pardons and preemptive pardons — including figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley — and pardoned several family members; the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney maintains rolling lists of pardons, commutations and clemency recipients [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. What the official records show — scale and categories
The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney publishes the formal lists of pardons, commutations and clemency recipients for Biden’s term; those records and White House releases show both category-wide acts (marijuana pardons by proclamation) and many individual pardons and commutations across 2022–2025 [3] [1] [7]. In December 2024 Biden issued pardons to 39 named individuals convicted of non-violent crimes and commuted nearly 1,500 sentences — a single-day high for the administration [2] [8].
2. Which high-profile personalities were named on final-day lists
Media and archived White House statements list several prominent, named recipients in the late-January 2025 round: Dr. Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley were among those cited in media summaries and compiled lists of last-minute pardons and clemency actions [4] [5] [6]. News outlets assembled full lists of the president’s final pardons, noting they included family members and some political figures [5] [6].
3. Family members and “preemptive” pardons — who and why
News reporting and White House statements show Biden pardoned close relatives — including James and Francis Biden, Valerie Biden Owens and spouses — and the administration characterized those as preemptive protections for relatives who had been targeted in partisan attacks [9] [5] [6]. The White House statement emphasized these actions were not admissions of wrongdoing and framed them as protective measures against politically motivated prosecutions [10] [6].
4. Celebrity and business leaders — what the sources say (and do not say)
Available official lists and major coverage focus on dozens of non‑violent offenders, veterans, and public figures like Fauci and Milley; however, the provided sources do not present a tidy catalogue labeled “celebrities or business leaders” who received pardons. Media lists and DOJ records identify individual recipients by name and conviction type, but the specific phrase “which celebrities or business leaders” and a compiled, exclusive list of such figures is not present in the sources provided here (available sources do not mention a consolidated celebrity/business‑leader list) [3] [4] [2].
5. The crimes connected to named pardons — types and examples
The White House and press summaries show the December 2024 group of 39 were convicted of non‑violent or non‑violent drug offenses; other individual pardons cited in reporting include tax and gun offenses (as in Hunter Biden’s earlier pardon reporting), fraud convictions (e.g., multi‑million dollar fraudsters noted in BBC coverage), and federal marijuana possession convictions covered by Biden’s proclamations [2] [11] [1]. For specific named individuals referenced in media: Marcus Garvey’s posthumous pardon relates to a 1923 mail‑fraud conviction; other named recipients had non‑violent federal convictions described in the White House materials [5] [2].
6. Disagreement and controversy over process and authorizing signatures
Republicans and subsequent inquiries have questioned the process used late in Biden’s term, raising claims about autopen signatures and whether some warrants were valid; major outlets report the claims and note legal scholars’ skepticism that voiding past pardons would stand up in court. The Justice Department and investigations were reported to be probing use of autopen and related procedures, while Biden and aides said he made clemency decisions [12] [13] [14]. These competing narratives — GOP assertions of invalidity versus constitutional and DOJ practice — are central to the debate [12] [13].
7. How to verify names and crimes yourself — primary sources
For precise answers about any individual recipient and the criminal conviction pardoned or commuted, consult the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney lists and the White House clemency press releases cited in the public record; those official lists give names, dates and the underlying federal offenses [3] [7] [15]. News outlets reconstructed and annotated those releases for public consumption [5] [2].
Limitations: my analysis relies only on the documents and reporting you provided; I do not assert recipients beyond what those sources list and I note there is no single, labeled “celebrity/business leader” list in the supplied material (available sources do not mention such a consolidated list) [3] [4] [2].