FBI Agents Association members said in a statement that they were “outraged” by Biden’s decision in the last hours of his presidency to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.
“This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability,” FBIAA posted on social media. “It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement.”
Peltier, an indigenous activist, will serve the remainder of his sentence at home. Fifty years ago, he was convicted in the deaths of FBI special agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler following a standoff at South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. FBIAA members said the agents both “gave their lives in service to this nation, and their families continue to bear the heavy burden of that sacrifice.”
Peltier has consistently maintained he is innocent of the agents’ deaths.
