List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States

This is a partial list of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States. The plenary power to grant a pardon or a reprieve is granted to the president by Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution; the only limits mentioned in the Constitution are that pardons are limited to federal offenses, and that they cannot affect an impeachment process: "The president shall ... have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment".
Though pardons have been challenged in the courts, and the power to grant them challenged by Congress, the courts have consistently declined to put limits on the president's discretion. The president can issue a full pardon, reversing a criminal conviction (along with its legal effects) as if it never happened. A pardon can also be offered for a period of time to cover any crimes that may have taken place or stop any charges from ever being filed during that period. A pardon can be issued from the time an offense is committed, and can even be issued after the full sentence has been served. The president can issue a reprieve, commuting a criminal sentence, lessening its severity, its duration, or both while leaving a record of the conviction in place. Additionally, the president can make a pardon conditional, or vacate a conviction while leaving parts of the sentence in place, like the payment of fines or restitution. After George W. Bush attempted to rescind his pardon of Isaac Robert Toussie, the Department of Justice concluded that the pardon was not yet effective, since it had never been officially delivered to Toussie. Under this legal interpretation, posthumous Presidential pardons appear to be merely ceremonial and have no effect, since they were never delivered to the recipient.
Pardons granted by presidents from George Washington until Grover Cleveland's first term (1885–89) were handwritten by the president; thereafter, pardons were prepared for the president by administrative staff requiring only that the president sign it. The records of these presidential acts were openly available for public inspection until 1934. In 1981, the Office of the Pardon Attorney was created and records from President George H. W. Bush forward are listed.
President George Washington pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 16 people. Among them are:
Federalist president John Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 20 people. Among them are:
Democratic-Republican president Thomas Jefferson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 119 people. One of his first acts upon taking office was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act. Among them are:
Democratic-Republican president James Madison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 196 people. Among them are:
Democratic-Republican president James Monroe pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 419 people. Among them are:
Democratic-Republican president John Quincy Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 183 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Andrew Jackson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 386 people. Among them is:
Democratic president Martin Van Buren pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 168 people. Among them are:
Whig president William Henry Harrison was one of only two presidents who issued no pardons, the other being James A. Garfield. This was due to Harrison's death shortly after taking office.
Whig president John Tyler pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 209 people. Among them are:
Democratic president James K. Polk pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 268 people. Among them are:
Whig president Zachary Taylor pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 38 people.
Whig president Millard Fillmore pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 170 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Franklin Pierce pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 142 people.
Democratic president James Buchanan pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 150 people. Among them are:
Republican president Abraham Lincoln pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 343 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Andrew Johnson pardoned about 7,000 people in the "over $20,000" class (taxable property over $20,000) by May 4, 1866. More than 600 prominent North Carolinians were pardoned just before the election of 1864. President Andrew Johnson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 654 people. Among them are:
Republican president Ulysses S. Grant pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,332 people. Among them are:
Republican president Rutherford B. Hayes pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 893 people. Among them is:
Republican president James A. Garfield was one of only two presidents who issued no pardons, the other being William Henry Harrison. This is because Garfield only served a few months before being assassinated.
Republican president Chester A. Arthur pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 337 people. Among them is:
Democratic president Grover Cleveland pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,107 (est.) people during his two, non-consecutive terms. Among them are:
Republican president Benjamin Harrison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 613 people. Among them are:
See list under first term.
Republican president William McKinley pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 918 (est.) people. Among them are:
Republican president Theodore Roosevelt pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 981 (est.) people. Among them are:
Republican president William Howard Taft pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 758 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Woodrow Wilson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,480 people. Among them are:
Republican president Warren G. Harding pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 800 people. Among them are:
Republican president Calvin Coolidge pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,545 people. Among them are:
Republican president Herbert Hoover pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,385 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt granted 3,687 pardons in his almost 4 terms in office. Among them are:
Democratic president Harry S. Truman pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,044 people. Among them are:
Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,157 people. Among them is:
"Until the Eisenhower Administration, each pardon grant was evidenced by its own separate warrant signed by the president. President Eisenhower began the practice of granting pardons by the batch, through the device of a 'master warrant' listing all of the names of those pardoned, which also delegated to the Attorney General (or, later, the Deputy Attorney General or Pardon Attorney) authority to sign individual warrants evidencing the president's action."
Democratic president John F. Kennedy pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 575 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 1,187 people. Among them are:
Republican president Richard Nixon pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 926 people. Among them are:
Republican president Gerald Ford pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 409 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Jimmy Carter pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 566 people, and in addition to that pardoned over 200,000 Vietnam War draft evaders. Among them are:
Republican president Ronald Reagan pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 406 people. Among them are:
Republican president George H. W. Bush pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 77 people. Among them are:
Democratic president Bill Clinton pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 459 people. Among them are:
Republican president George W. Bush pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 200 people. Among them were:
Democratic president Barack Obama pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 1,927 people. Among them were:
Republican president Donald Trump pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 237 people in his first presidency.
Democratic president Joe Biden pardoned, commuted, or rescinded more than 10,000 convictions, among them were family and colleagues of past and present including the following:
Trump began pardoning, commuting, or rescinding convictions upon the first day of his second presidency: