President Joe Biden has already granted a record-setting number of pardons, commutations, and clemencies but reportedly did so without proper vetting and left hundreds of requests that were vetted and advised waiting.
A source told The Washington Post that among the 1,499 commutations in December most came without even having submitted applications for clemency with the Justice Department, rushing the rollout, including the sweeping pardon for all crimes committed by Hunter Biden for a 10-year period from 2014-24.
Biden has already pardoned 65 and commuted sentences for 1,634, putting him over the 1,700 record set by former President Barack Obama, according to the Post.
"More steps in the weeks ahead" will be coming, Biden pledged in a statement, "to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances."
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, signed a letter to Biden on clemency requests still in limbo.
"We're still in discussions with him, so it's not over yet," Booker said recently. "I'm hoping there's going to be a lot more."
Biden has turned down 7,903 requests for pardons and commutations this year after years of leaving them in limbo, according to New York University law professor Rachel Barkow, a former member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
"It’s a car wreck of government administration, a nonfunctioning process," she told the Post.
Biden has had nearly 30,000 applications of clemency in the vetting process, including 15,000 petitions left over from the Donald Trump administration and another 13,600 filed since he took office, the Post reported.
"One of the reasons I find the Hunter Biden pardon so jarring is because he has been so stingy with clemency relief for everyone else," Barkow told the Post. "There are a lot of people like Hunter Biden, who have committed crimes in the throes of addiction, and are sitting in prison. This is really shameful."
Despite Biden vowing to bring equity to justice and reducing the prison population, less than 2% of the clemencies delivered thus far have actually reduced sentences for those incarcerated, according to the Post.
Biden needs to focus on those behind bars, especially those who are sick, according to FWD.us Director Zoë Towns.
"There are real life and death consequences," Towns told the Post. "Many of the people impacted by excessive sentences are now quite old and sick, and they can't afford to wait another two or three years."
There have been 152 clemency applicants who have died in prison while waiting for Biden, the Post reported.
Former drug offender Alice Johnson, famously pardoned by Trump in 2018, is calling for more action beyond the president's son Hunter.
"What about the other sons who are locked up?" she told the Post. "I'm not saying anything against a father's love for his son, but there are a lot of sons and daughters who need his acts of grace and mercy."
There has been "deep unfairness" to Biden having skipped over the vetting process laid out by the Justice Department, University of St. Thomas law professor Mark Osler told the Post.
"His grants so far have been wide but shallow," Osler said. "He's ignoring the thousands of people who followed the rules and filed petitions for clemency from prison, and there is a deep unfairness to that."