![Biden grants clemency to 16 nonviolent drug offenders](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/04/24/e495b0b9-e728-4772-8382-8d5c04d0d680/thumbnail/1200x630/4029c585dc1a6db20f52e80d04044909/ap24114827335492.jpg?v=1da0267dcfd5e1d387d4678a648e733c)
Biden grants clemency to 16 nonviolent drug offenders
CBSN
Washington — President Biden on Wednesday granted clemency to 16 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, pardoning 11 of them and commuting the sentences of the other five.
The pardon recipients include a woman who has since earned her doctorate, a business owner and community members involved in their churches, while one of the commutation recipients will no longer have to serve a life prison sentence.
In December, the president granted categorical pardons to thousands convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana in Washington, D.C., and on federal lands.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206121934.jpg)
More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206040405.jpg)
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206003957.jpg)
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.