President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people and is pardoning 39 Americans This is the largest single day active clemency in modern history the commutations announced are for those who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the Corona virus Pandemic those who are pardon were convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses Biden said in a statement quote America was built on the promise of possibility and Second Chances he said he would continue to review clemency petitions more recently Biden had granted a broad pardon for his son Hunter who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes the president said this in his statement that Hunter and his family had been through enough enough is enough that wasn’t a very popular move with only about two and 10 Americans approving of his decision according to an apnc poll more pardons are expected before Biden leaves office but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to protect people from Trump’s possible prosecution which would be an untested use of power