SIXTY YEARS ON

Biden Issues First Pardons, Including Black Kennedy-Era Secret Service Agent Accused of Corruption

Abraham Bolden was the first Black man assigned to protect a president, but was later convicted of bribery in case that he says was racially motivated.

Joe Biden has granted the first three pardons of his presidency, including to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent who was later convicted on a federal bribery charge. Abraham Bolden Sr., now 86, was the first Black agent assigned to a presidential detail in 1961 before being accused three years later of trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file. His first trial ended in a hung jury and key witnesses in his second trial, which saw him jailed, later admitted to lying. Bolden wrote a book claiming he had been targeted after speaking out against racism in the Secret Service. Also pardoned, according to the Associated Press, were two people convicted of drug offenses who turned their lives around after their release from prison. Biden also commuted the sentences of 75 other people convicted of nonviolent drug-related offenses. “America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation,” Biden said in a statement.