Skip to content
- These counts include all grants of clemency (convictions pardoned, commuted, and rescinded).
- Joe Biden issued the most grants of clemency with 4,245.
- Herbert Hoover had the most grants of clemency for a one-term president with 1,385.
- Neither William Henry Harrison nor James A. Garfield issued a pardon before their death in office.
- George Washington issued the fewest grants of clemency for a president who served at least one full term - 16.
- In addition the numbers in this table, Andrew Johnson also issued over 7,000 pardons for people who served in the Confederate Army and Jimmy Carter issued over 200,000 pardons for Vietnam War draft dodgers.
- Richard M. Nixon is the only president to receive a pardon (from Gerald R. Ford).
- Top 10 Most Controversial Pardons from Presidential Stories with Bob Summers
- * Indicates these are estimated numbers.
- + Incumbent president's numbers last updated 20 Jan 2025.
| Rank | # | President | Pardons |
| 1 | 46 | Joe Biden | 4,245 |
| 2 | 32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 3,687 |
| 3 | 28 | Woodrow Wilson | 2,480 |
| 4 | 33 | Harry S. Truman | 2,044 |
| 5 | 44 | Barack Obama | 1,927 |
| 6 | 30 | Calvin Coolidge | 1,545 |
| 7 | 31 | Herbert Hoover | 1,385 |
| 8 | 18 | Ulysses S. Grant | 1,332 |
| 9 | 36 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1,187 |
| 10 | 34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1,157 |
| 11 | 22 & 24 | Grover Cleveland | 1,107 * |
| 12 | 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 981 * |
| 13 | 37 | Richard M. Nixon | 926 |
| 14 | 25 | William McKinley | 918 * |
| 15 | 19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 893 |
| 16 | 29 | Warren G. Harding | 800 |
| 17 | 27 | William H. Taft | 758 |
| 18 | 17 | Andrew Johnson | 654 |
| 19 | 23 | Benjamin Harrison | 613 |
| 20 | 35 | John F. Kennedy | 575 |
| 21 | 39 | Jimmy Carter | 566 |
| 22 | 42 | Bill Clinton | 459 |
| 23 | 5 | James Monroe | 419 |
| 24 | 38 | Gerald R. Ford | 409 |
| 25 | 40 | Ronald Reagan | 406 |
| 26 | 7 | Andrew Jackson | 386 |
| 27 | 16 | Abraham Lincoln | 343 |
| 28 | 21 | Chester A. Arthur | 337 |
| 29 | 11 | James K. Polk | 268 |
| 30 | 45 & 47 | Donald J. Trump | 238 + |
| 31 | 10 | John Tyler | 209 |
| 32 | 43 | George W. Bush | 200 |
| 33 | 4 | James Madison | 196 |
| 34 | 6 | John Quincy Adams | 183 |
| 35 | 13 | Millard Fillmore | 170 |
| 36 | 8 | Martin Van Buren | 168 |
| 37 | 15 | James Buchanan | 150 |
| 38 | 14 | Franklin Pierce | 142 |
| 39 | 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 119 |
| 40 | 41 | George H. W. Bush | 77 |
| 41 | 12 | Zachary Taylor | 38 |
| 42 | 2 | John Adams | 21 |
| 43 | 1 | George Washington | 16 |
| 44 | 9 | William Henry Harrison | 0 |
| 44 | 20 | James A. Garfield | 0 |
Return to Presidential Facts
