How many pardons and clemencies did Biden give
Executive summary
President Joe Biden granted a historic total of individual acts of clemency — 4,245 pardons and commutations over his term — and used large-scale proclamations and mass commutations in his final weeks, including commutations for nearly 2,500 people and pardons for thousands convicted of simple marijuana possession [1] [2] [3]. The Justice Department and White House records list multiple discrete pardons and commutation rounds between 2022 and January 19, 2025; independent analyses (Pew, NPR) and official lists document that Biden’s clemency count exceeds any prior president on record [1] [4] [3].
1. Biden’s clemency tally and how it was counted
The Pew Research Center’s analysis reports that Biden granted 4,245 acts of clemency during his four-year term — a combined total of pardons, commutations and other individual clemency actions that, by Pew’s method, make his tally the largest on record [1]. That number includes individual pardons and commutations tallied by the Justice Department but does not always treat mass proclamations the same way DOJ historically has; the administration also used proclamations to pardon classes, such as people convicted of certain federal marijuana offenses [1].
2. Major single-day and mass actions that drove the total
Biden’s final weeks featured multiple large clemency actions that sharply increased his totals. On January 17–19, 2025, the White House announced commutations for approximately 2,490 people and earlier Dec. 12, 2024, action commuted nearly 1,500 sentences — moves described by the White House and press outlets as among the largest single-day uses of clemency in modern history [3] [5] [4]. Those mass commutations, along with proclamations pardoning thousands for simple marijuana possession, materially boosted his overall count [1] [4].
3. Pardons vs. commutations: the practical difference and Biden’s mix
A pardon forgives a conviction; a commutation shortens or ends a sentence without erasing the conviction. Biden’s record includes both. Independent outlets and DOJ pages show that he issued dozens of individual pardons across multiple dates (e.g., 2022–2024) and a far larger number of commutations, especially in late 2024 and January 2025, when he focused on lengthy drug sentences and crack-powder sentencing disparities [6] [7] [2].
4. Key documented numbers and examples
Pew’s February 2025 analysis puts the cumulative acts at 4,245 [1]. NPR and the White House describe the January 17, 2025 action as commuting roughly 2,490 sentences and earlier December 12, 2024 actions as commuting about 1,500 and pardoning 39 people that day [4] [5] [2]. DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney maintains discrete pages listing pardons and commutations by date through January 19, 2025 [6] [7].
5. Political and legal fallout: competing viewpoints
Supporters framed Biden’s clemency actions as corrective — addressing sentencing disparities tied to crack versus powder cocaine and offering second chances to people serving outdated, disproportionately long sentences [2]. Critics raised public-safety and process concerns after some recipients were later accused of reoffending, and Republican officials questioned the timing and some high-profile pardons, creating partisan disputes and Oversight Committee scrutiny [8] [9] [10]. The legal community noted that once a presidential pardon is issued it cannot be unilaterally revoked by a later president, even as political actors have asserted otherwise [11] [12].
6. Recordkeeping, proclamations and counting quirks
Counting clemency across administrations requires attention to method: DOJ lists individual pardons and commutations by date, while presidential proclamations that grant clemency to classes (for example, for simple marijuana possession) change how totals are reported and compared historically [1] [6]. Pew’s comparison used DOJ data accessed in late January 2025 to conclude Biden’s numerical lead, but it also noted historical differences in how presidents used proclamations that forgive large classes of people [1].
7. What the available sources do not mention
Available sources do not mention a definitive, single-page “all-inclusive” DOJ spreadsheet that reconciles every proclamation, mass commutation and individual action into an unambiguous final number distinct from Pew’s 4,245 figure. Sources also do not provide an authoritative legal determination that any specific Biden pardon or commutation has been invalidated by courts [1] [11].
Final note: the clemency record is both numerical and political. The best-cited public totals — DOJ lists, White House releases, NPR reporting and Pew’s analysis — converge on the narrative that Biden issued more acts of clemency than any modern president, driven by mass commutations and class pardons late in his term [1] [4] [3].