Biden commutes sentences for 1,500, pardons 39 convicted of non-violent crimes

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that he was pardoning 39 people who were convicted of non-violent crimes and was commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people on home confinement, who he said have “shown successful rehabilitation and have shown commitment to making their communities stronger and safer.”

The White House described the actions as the “largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.”

“These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance,” Biden said in a statement.

According to the White House fact sheet, some of those getting clemency on Thursday include a military veteran who spends time helping church members in poor health, a nurse who has helped in emergency response and an addiction counselor who volunteers to help young people.

The White House hinted that this isn’t the last of Biden’s pardons during his final months in office.

“He wants to take additional steps, obviously, to provide meaningful second chances,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the daily briefing on Thursday. “This is what this is all about.”

But Jean-Pierre declined to say whether Biden was considering possible preemptive pardons for individuals who could be targeted by the Trump administration, such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney or Dr. Anthony Fauci. ABC News previously reported Biden was weighing the option, according to a source close to the president.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the president,” Jean-Pierre told ABC News White House Correspondent MaryAlice Parks when pressed on the issue. “As I said, we’ll have more — the president will have more to announce over the upcoming weeks as we are close out our time here.”

“I’m not going to get into the president’s thinking,” she continued. “He’s going to have conversations with his team. He’s going to review clemency petitions. He’s going to review options on the table.”

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