Over 2,490 autopenned commutations were granted on Jan. 17 in then-President Joe Biden’s name — more in one day than any previous president granted over their entire presidency.
A statement attributed to Biden suggested that the clemency action was “an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.”
‘Crime must be met with consequences, not weakness.’
Among the supposedly “deserving individuals” who received commutations — which an associate deputy attorney general indicated at the time were legally flawed — was Khyre Holbert, a thug who pled guilty in 2018 to multiple crimes, including trafficking crack cocaine and knowingly carrying and using a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. He previously served three years in prison for a separate felony firearm conviction.
Holbert, whom the Biden White House spared from serving the remaining 13 years of his 20-year sentence, was arrested last month in connection with a shooting in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, that sent a 28-year-old man to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“Holbert should never have been released back into the community. I’m at complete loss as to why this administration continues to honor the directions of the Biden-era autopen,” Oversight Project president Mike Howell told Blaze News. “He should have been re-arrested, as we’ve been calling for many months. Holbert won’t be the last.”
According to the Omaha Police Department, a gunshot rang out in the early hours of Oct. 4 as an officer was investigating a disturbance involving a firearm in the area of 13th and Howard streets. After additional units were called to the scene, police located a man suffering from a gunshot wound as well as a discarded firearm.
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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Police caught Holbert and charged him with first-degree assault, using a firearm to commit a felony, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He has since also been slapped with a federal firearms charge.
An unsealed complaint alleges that forensic technicians successfully identified Holbert’s fingerprints on the gun and that the gun appears to be the same weapon used in numerous other violent gun offenses in the state, WOWT-TV reported.
The Omaha Police Officers Association commended officers for rushing to the scene “before Holbert could get away or hurt anyone else” and condemned Holbert’s early release by the Biden White House.
“Releasing dangerous criminals before proven rehabilitative efforts, puts our communities, our families, our kids, and our police officers at risk. We’re grateful our members got there fast, before Holbert could get away or hurt anyone else,” the OPOA added.
Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed OPOA’s frustration, noting in a statement, “The Biden administration’s last-minute commutations were not only a cruel blow to victims’ families, but also a fundamental failure to hold criminals accountable.”
“This tragic case proves that crime must be met with consequences, not weakness,” Bondi continued. “Our prosecutors in Nebraska are doing the job that the prior administration refused to do.”
The Biden White House reportedly commuted Holbert’s sentence despite objections from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska, which cited Holbert’s gang affiliation and multiple criminal convictions.
The Oversight Project obtained damning internal emails from the Justice Department in August revealing that former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer had taken issue with the Biden White House’s apparent efforts to mislead the nation about the violent criminal nature of the individuals who received commutations.
While the Jan. 17 statement attributed to Biden characterizes the recipients of the commutations as felons “convicted of non-violent drug offenses,” many of those who received commutations along with Holbert were violent thugs, including
- Russell McIntosh, who gunned down a woman along with her 2-year-old child after the woman threatened to expose his drug enterprise;
- Adrian Peeler, sentenced for conspiracy to commit murder involving the slaying of an 8-year-old witness and his mother; and
- Plaze Anderson, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples who was personally involved in two murders, an attempted murder and kidnapping, and obstruction of justice.
Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a Blaze News contributor.
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