Drug Lords, Ponzi Schemers, and Corrupt Officials: Meet Joe Biden’s Clemency Recipients

Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 federal convicts whom President Joe Biden granted clemency on Thursday in what the White House touted as “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.”

The White House framed the move as part of Biden’s “record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society,” touting clemency awarded to a “decorated military veteran” who helps fellow church members, and a nurse who “spearheaded vaccination efforts.” Biden has faced intense pressure to issue mass clemencies after pardoning his son, Hunter—who faced sentencing for felony gun charges and tax evasion—of any federal crime he may have committed in more than a decade.

A Washington Free Beacon review of those who received clemency shows that many of the recipients were serving sentences for serious crimes.

There is Daniel Fillerup, sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling fentanyl that killed an Albany woman, and Shelinder Aggarwal, an Alabama “pill mill” doctor who the Department of Justice said “directly contributed to the opioid epidemic.” And Biden commuted the 17.5-year prison sentence of former Luzerne County, Pa., judge Michael Conahan, who took $2.1 million in kickbacks from a for-profit prison executive in exchange for sentencing juveniles to those facilities.

Also on the list: Rita Crundwell, former Dixon, Ill., comptroller and treasurer who embezzled more than $53 million from the city in what the DOJ described as “the largest theft of public funds in state history.” Crundwell used the money to breed racing horses. She was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013. Dixon city officials blasted Biden’s reprieve for Crundwell. “This is a complete travesty of justice and a slap in the face of our entire community,” said city manager Danny Langloss.