The top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, has called on Joe Biden to pardon some “working-class Americans” after the president faced criticism for pardoning his son Hunter.
“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Biden, who leaves office on 20 January, for months had said he would not pardon his son, who was found guilty of lying about being addicted to illegal drugs while buying a gun and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of failing to pay $1.4m in taxes. The sweeping pardon also applied to any other crimes “he committed or may have committed” between 1 January 2014 and 1 December this year.
The president said he believed his son had been made the target of a politically motivated prosecution. Republicans including Donald Trump condemned the move, as did some Democrats who said it eroded trust in the judicial system.
Last month, more than 60 members of Congress urged Biden to use his clemency power to confront mass incarceration and reunite families.
“Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges,” the lawmakers, led by Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, wrote in a letter.
The letter noted that the US has disproportionately incarcerated people of color, low-income individuals, members of the LGBTQ+ community and those with disabilities, and that 90% of the federal prison population was convicted on non-violent offenses.
As of November, there were more than 12,000 bids for sentence commutations and 4,000 pardon requests on his desk.
Ed Pilkington contributed reporting