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Fact check: How many pardons did President Biden grant during his term in office?
Executive Summary
President Joe Biden has exercised the presidential pardon power in a limited, targeted manner, with public records and expert commentary indicating his total number of individual pardons during the term falls in the double digits rather than the hundreds. The Department of Defense confirmed a blanket, group pardon for former service members under former Article 125 of the UCMJ on June 26, 2024, and legal commentators characterize Biden’s broader clemency record as modest, but no single source in the provided materials supplies a definitive aggregate count of all pardons issued [1] [2].
1. Why the Question Is Hard to Answer: records, categories and public notices
Counting presidential pardons requires distinguishing among individual, group, and certificate-based clemency actions, and public notices sometimes record only the action’s scope rather than a headcount. The Department of Defense proclamation described a full, unconditional pardon for a specific class of former service members convicted under former Article 125 of the UCMJ and outlined eligibility and administrative steps, without providing an aggregate number of affected individuals [1]. Legal commentary similarly notes Biden’s use of clemency in narrow instances but stops short of providing a comprehensive tally, which underscores the administrative and reporting gaps that complicate an exact count [2].
2. The clearest documented action: the UCMJ Article 125 blanket pardon
The most concrete, documentable action in the provided sources is the June 26, 2024 proclamation granting a blanket pardon to certain former service members for convictions under former Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; the proclamation explains scope, eligibility and certificate procedures but does not enumerate beneficiaries [1]. That proclamation is a formal exercise of the pardon power and demonstrates Biden’s approach to targeted, remedial clemency for a specific, historically discriminatory provision of military law, yet it provides no numerical shortcut to an overall tally of pardons across all federal convictions during the presidency [1].
3. Independent expert characterization: Biden’s pardons described as “double digits”
Legal experts summarizing Biden’s cumulative clemency record in commentary describe his total number of pardons as “in the double digits,” conveying a range between ten and ninety-nine rather than a large-scale clemency program [2]. This characterization offers a useful benchmark: it signals that Biden’s use of pardons has been substantially lower than some recent presidents who issued hundreds of clemency actions, but it does not provide precise counting or list-based verification. The expert summary therefore corroborates a picture of relatively restrained usage without turning that picture into a definitive numeric count [2].
4. What the non-relevant sources show about media framing and distraction
Some provided materials focus on other presidents’ clemency records or on unrelated political claims; these sources do not advance a numeric answer and highlight how public debate sometimes conflates distinct issues. For example, a compilation detailing former President Trump’s clemency activity is centered on his list of 237 pardons and 94 commutations and offers no information about Biden’s actions, underscoring how comparisons can distract from the question of Biden’s actual tally [3]. Another item contained non-substantive corporate policy text and therefore contributes no factual data about pardons [4].
5. What is reliably known and what remains unknown
From the available sources we can reliably state that Biden has issued at least one notable blanket pardon for a defined group of former service members and that legal commentary places his total pardons in the double digits range; however, the exact, verified aggregate number of individual pardons issued by Biden during the presidency is not provided by the supplied documents [1] [2]. Administrative notices and expert summaries together suggest limited overall use of clemency, but they do not substitute for a consolidated, countable list maintained by a federal record or compilation within the provided material.
6. How to get a definitive count: records and aggregation to request
A precise numeric answer requires compiling records from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, White House proclamations and Federal Register notices, and cabinet agency proclamations such as the DoD’s UCMJ action; none of those definitive aggregated data points are included in the materials supplied here [1] [2]. To verify an exact total, request or consult a consolidated dataset from the DOJ’s clemency records, the White House list of commutations and pardons, and successive Federal Register entries, since scholarly summaries and single-agency proclamations will not necessarily capture every individual or group pardon.
7. Bottom line for your original question: best-supported conclusion from available materials
Based solely on the provided analyses and documents, the best-supported conclusion is that President Biden has granted a modest number of pardons—characterized in expert commentary as double digits—and at least one formal blanket pardon for former service members under Article 125 of the UCMJ; however, an exact count cannot be confirmed from these sources alone and would require aggregation of DOJ and White House records not included in the supplied material [1] [2].