How do Obama's and Biden's clemency totals compare to recent presidents like Trump, Clinton, and Obama predecessors?
Executive summary
President Joe Biden issued the largest single-day clemency action in modern history—commuting the sentences of roughly 2,490–2,500 people—bringing his overall total of individual pardons and commutations to a level that, by January 2025, the White House and multiple outlets said exceeds prior presidents’ totals (White House list; NPR) [1] [2]. By contrast, Donald Trump granted relatively few clemency actions across most of his term but issued a large wave of pardons and commutations late in office; past presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used clemency in smaller, more controversial or targeted ways (Pew Research; The Hill; DOJ clemency lists) [3] [4] [5].
1. Biden’s record-setting last acts: volume and focus
On Jan. 17–19, 2025, the White House published a clemency recipient list showing Biden commuted the sentences of 2,490 individuals; outlets rounded that to “nearly 2,500” or “2,500” commutations and noted an earlier December action that commuted almost 1,500 home-confinement sentences and pardoned 39 people (White House; NPR; The Hill) [1] [2] [6]. The stated focus was nonviolent drug offenses and sentences longer than would be imposed under current law and policy [2] [6].
2. How Biden compares numerically to recent presidents
Reporting and DOJ records indicate Biden, by mid-January 2025, had issued more individual pardons and commutations than any prior president in modern records—driven largely by these large, concentrated actions (White House; Forbes; Axios) [1] [7] [8]. The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney maintains clemency recipient lists for presidents back through Obama, Trump, Clinton and earlier, which are the base for comparative counts (DOJ clemency pages) [5]. Available sources do not provide a full side‑by‑side table of totals for each recent president in this packet, but multiple outlets characterize Biden’s cumulative count as unprecedented in the modern era [1] [2] [8].
3. Trump: few acts most of the term, then a late surge
Analysts say Trump used clemency sparingly through most of his term and ranked among the presidents with the fewest acts since 1900, though he issued a substantial number of pardons and commutations in the closing weeks of his presidency and later continued issuing pardons (Pew Research; The Guardian) [3] [9]. Pew’s analysis notes only George W. and George H.W. Bush granted fewer acts of clemency than Trump over equivalent timeframes, signaling Trump’s overall lower volume until his late-term surge [3].
4. Obama and Clinton: targeted commutations and high-profile controversies
Barack Obama is known for a significant use of commutations for people convicted of drug-related offenses during his second term; that approach drew Republican criticism for appearing to bypass legislative sentencing policy even as advocates praised relief for long drug sentences (Pew Research; DOJ clemency lists) [3] [5]. Bill Clinton’s clemency is often remembered for a handful of highly controversial moves—most notably the last-day pardon of Marc Rich—which provoked bipartisan condemnation and debate about favoritism (Pew Research) [3].
5. What counts as a clemency “total” and why comparisons are tricky
Counting “clemency totals” depends on whether you count pardons, commutations, preemptive pardons and the timing of actions (single-day mass commutations versus small, frequent grants). DOJ archives list pardons and commutations separately for each president, but reporters use different rounding (e.g., 2,490 vs. “2,500”) and emphasize context—Biden’s December and January actions were described as the “largest single-day” modern act and tied to sentencing disparities (DOJ; NPR; Axios) [1] [2] [8]. Available sources do not include a unified numeric table in this search set showing exact totals for Trump, Obama, Clinton and predecessors side-by-side, so precise numeric rankings beyond the descriptive claims in reporting are not fully reproduced here [5].
6. Competing perspectives and political framing
Supporters of Biden’s approach frame the mass commutations as correcting unjust historical sentencing differences and delivering relief to nonviolent drug offenders; critics — including some in both parties — call certain pardons or the pardoning of relatives politically fraught (NPR; Fox; Pew) [2] [10] [3]. Reporting also highlights concerns raised about presidents who circumvent the Justice Department’s usual review process—as alleged in analyses of Trump’s and, at times, Biden’s more selective pardons—which affects perceptions of legitimacy (Pew; The Guardian) [3] [9].
7. Bottom line: Biden’s scale is unprecedented in modern coverage, but context matters
Multiple mainstream sources and the White House list present Biden’s actions in January 2025 as a record for individual acts of clemency in modern times—driven by nearly 2,500 commutations focused on nonviolent drug offenses and prior December actions that freed nearly 1,500 people from home confinement [1] [6] [2]. Comparing presidents requires care: totals can be counted differently, historical patterns vary (steady small grants vs. late surges vs. targeted commutations), and public reaction often hinges more on the profile of recipients than raw numbers (Pew Research; The Guardian; DOJ) [3] [9] [5].
Limitations: available sources here document Biden’s 2024–2025 actions and provide descriptive comparisons and DOJ archives, but they do not supply a single, fully reconciled numeric table listing final totals for every recent president within this result set [5].