Biden Issues His First Pardons — Details Here

Biden has officially started to use his clemency powers.

One of the men that Biden has pardoned was Abraham Bolden ex-secret service agent for President John F. Kennedy was charged in 1964 for selling Secret Service files to Joseph Spagnoli Jr.

Betty Jo Bogans was also pardoned by Biden, Bogans is a 51-year-old woman who was arrested in 1998 for possession and intent to distribute cocaine.

The last man who was on Biden’s list of pardons was Dexter Jackson a 52-year-old man who was convicted in 2002 for distributing marijuana in Georgia.

Included in Biden’s first batch of pardons are 75 drug offenders whose sentences were commuted.

Biden commuted the prison sentences of 75 low-level drug offenders and pardoned 3 others in his first use of clemency powers since he was elected.

See the full list here https://t.co/7wDqfmlqut pic.twitter.com/5Pyqg3Ob5F

— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) April 26, 2022

ABC News had more details to share:

Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he pardoned three people who have “demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation,” including 86-year-old Abraham W. Bolden Sr., who was the first Black Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail.

The president also commuted the sentences of 75 people who are currently serving long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.

“America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities,” Biden said in a statement.

Tuesday’s action was the first time Biden used his clemency powers during his presidency and came after advocates and progressive Democrats urged the president to fulfill his long-awaited campaign promise to use his executive authority to address mass incarceration and racial disparities in the criminal justice system, a crisis that was accelerated through policies like the 1994 crime bill, sweeping legislation authored by then-Sen. Biden that experts now say disproportionately impacted people of color.

Today, I granted pardons to three people and commuted the sentences of 75 people.

America is a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation. pic.twitter.com/TolNuKNtQt

— President Biden (@POTUS) April 26, 2022

President Biden plans to issue his first batch of presidential pardons while commuting the prison sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders. https://t.co/jAFldzkQbP

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 26, 2022

MSNBC had these details to release:

President Joe Biden plans to issue his first batch of presidential pardons Tuesday while commuting the prison sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders.

The pardon recipients are “three people who have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and are striving every day to give back and contribute to their communities,” Biden said in a statement.

Among them is Abraham Bolden, 86, a Chicago man who became the first African American Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail during the Kennedy administration.

In 1964, Bolden was arrested on charges related to attempting to sell a copy of a Secret Service file, an allegation he has consistently denied. He was convicted after two trials, even though key witnesses later admitted lying at the request of prosecutors, the White House said in a fact sheet.

The White House Released the Entire list and you can check out the full list here: List of Pardons/Commuted Sentences