Politics in Washington is usually about the long game, but the final hours of the Biden administration felt more like a frantic sprint. You've probably seen the headlines. Some called it a "mercy blitz," while others saw it as a calculated shield against the incoming Trump administration. Honestly, the scale of the last minute pardons by Biden was kind of staggering.
We aren't just talking about a few signatures on the way out the door. We're talking about a record-shattering use of executive power that reached from the heights of the Joint Chiefs of Staff down to hundreds of non-violent drug offenders who had been waiting years for a break.
The Hunter Biden Factor and the Family Shield
It all started with a massive reversal. For months, the White House line was firm: "No, the President will not pardon his son." But on December 1, 2024, everything changed. Biden issued a "Full and Unconditional Pardon" for Robert Hunter Biden, covering a decade of potential offenses.
It was a lightning rod.
Critics felt it undermined the Department of Justice. Supporters argued Hunter was being "singled out" because of his last name. But Biden didn't stop there. In the literal minutes before Donald Trump took the oath on January 20, 2025, Biden extended that shield to his entire immediate family.
His siblings—James, Francis, and Valerie Biden Owens—along with their spouses, received preemptive pardons. Why? Biden said his family had been "subjected to unrelenting attacks" and he didn't expect the "partisan politics" to stop once he left the building. It was basically a legal firewall against future investigations.
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Preemptive Pardons: Protecting the "GOP Foes"
This is where it gets really unusual. Usually, you get a pardon for a crime you've actually been convicted of. Biden, however, went the "preemptive" route for a list of high-profile figures who hadn't even been charged.
He was worried about "revenge" prosecutions.
On his final morning, he cleared:
- Dr. Anthony Fauci: The face of the COVID-19 response.
- General Mark Milley: Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- The January 6 Committee: Members like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Bennie Thompson, and Jamie Raskin.
- Capitol Police Officers: Including those like Harry Dunn who testified about the riot.
By issuing these, Biden wasn't saying they were guilty. In fact, his statement specifically said this shouldn't be "misconstrued as an admission of guilt." It was a strategic move to block the next administration from using the DOJ to target these specific individuals for their roles in the Jan. 6 investigations or the pandemic response.
Emptying Federal Death Row
If the family pardons were the most controversial, the death row commutations were the most sweeping. On December 23, 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates.
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He essentially cleared it out.
These individuals saw their death sentences changed to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Biden's logic? He couldn't "in good conscience" let the next administration resume executions he had worked to halt. Notably, he left three people on death row—those convicted of "terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder."
The Record-Breakers: 2,490 in One Day
People often forget the "ordinary" names on these lists. On January 17, 2025, Biden granted 2,490 commutations in a single day. That is more than any other president in U.S. history has granted over an entire term.
Most of these were for non-violent drug offenses.
Take someone like Norman O’Neal Brown. He was convicted at age 22. Under today’s laws, his sentence would have been a fraction of what he served. Or Kelsie Lynn Becklin, who used her second chance to finish a Ph.D. These aren't just political pawns; they’re people who had "turned their lives around," as the White House put it.
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Notable Individual Pardons
- Marcus Garvey: A posthumous pardon for the Black nationalist leader convicted of mail fraud in 1923. His family had been fighting for this for decades.
- Leonard Peltier: In the final minutes, Biden commuted the sentence of the Native American activist who had been in prison since the 70s for the deaths of two FBI agents.
- Don Scott: The first Black Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, who had a decades-old non-violent drug conviction.
- Ravi Ragbir: A prominent immigrant rights advocate.
Why These Last Minute Pardons by Biden Still Matter
The dust has settled on the transition, but the legal ripples of the last minute pardons by Biden are still being felt. The incoming Trump administration didn't take the death row commutations sitting down. Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately looked for ways to move those 37 inmates to harsher conditions, even if they couldn't be executed.
There's also the "precedent" problem. By using preemptive pardons so broadly, Biden has essentially given future presidents a "how-to" guide on protecting their allies before leaving office. Whether you think that's a brilliant safeguard or a corruption of justice depends entirely on which side of the aisle you sit on.
Key Stats from the Biden Clemency Record
- Total Acts of Clemency: Over 4,200.
- Pardons issued: 80 (surprisingly low, second only to H.W. Bush).
- Commutations: 4,165 (more than double Obama's record).
- The Final Month: 96% of his clemency actions happened after October 1, 2024.
Moving Forward: What to Watch
If you’re tracking the fallout of these decisions, keep an eye on the court cases challenging the "conditions of confinement" for the commuted death row inmates. Also, watch the congressional committees—they're still debating whether the "preemptive" pardon power needs to be reined in by a constitutional amendment.
For those looking to understand the clemency process for themselves or a loved one:
- Review the DOJ Pardon Attorney website: They keep a public database of all granted and denied petitions.
- Consult a Federal Defense Attorney: Clemency is rarely this "automatic" or "blanket" for the average citizen.
- Monitor State-Level Actions: Often, a federal pardon doesn't clear state-level charges, a loophole the current administration is actively exploring.
The legacy of the Biden years won't just be about policy or foreign wars. It'll be about these final strokes of the pen that redefined how a president uses the power of mercy.