# Obama grants a last-day commutation batch, taking commutations above 1,700

Date: 2017

## The fact

On 19 January 2017 the [White House](/organizations/white-house) recorded that President Obama had granted commutation to 330 people that day, taking the term total to 1,715 commutations, including hundreds of life sentences, mostly for drug offences under the 2014 clemency initiative.

## Context

Fair Sentencing 2010 and the 2014 DOJ initiative sat as parents. Neighbouring Gitmo-still-open the same week is a neighbour cost. He did not sit as every warden. Pardon Attorney and volunteer counsel share the file.

Fair Sentencing 3 August 2010 is a parent. Gitmo 19 January 2017 is a same-week cost file.

A United States president proposes, signs, vetoes, and directs the executive. Congress enacts statutes. The Federal Reserve, states, courts, and later presidents share later series. Office-holding is not authorship of every later outcome. Allegation is not a completed judgment. Legislative achievements require shared congressional attribution. He does not set the federal funds rate, write a state Medicaid waiver by himself, or convert a 2009 oath into a unique 2016 uninsured coefficient. A signature is not unique authorship of a House and Senate text. A troop order is not authorship of every later round. He is not president as of 27 August 2026. [Donald Trump](/people/mig-donald-trump) is president from 20 January 2025. [Joe Biden](/people/env-person-joe-biden) was president 2021–2025.

## Evidence and sources

White House (archives) carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [protection of minority rights](/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights): a completed commutation stock after outdated drug sentences.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 19 January 2017 last-day batch and 1,715-commutation total, independently reported.

Not established: that every federal drug sentence uniquely ended that day, or a unique later recidivism coefficient.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

DOJ Pardon Attorney recommended. Judges had imposed the parent sentences.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Obama grants a last-day commutation batch, taking commutations above 1,700, not a later speech about Obama grants a last-day commutation batch, taking commutations above 1,700.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Obama grants a last-day commutation batch, taking commutations above 1,700 on 2017-01-19 is not a licence to treat every later White House (archives) communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Obama grants a last-day commutation batch, taking commutations above 1,700 into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He granted. DOJ Pardon Attorney recommended. Judges had imposed the parent sentences. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Barack Obama: https://factrail.ai/people/barack-obama

## Drivers

- Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights
- Social Cohesion: https://factrail.ai/drivers/social-cohesion

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obama-clemency-idUSKBN1532N4
- https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2017/01/19/reinvigoration-clemency-authority

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-obama-clemency-2014