Biden’s FBI director expressed ‘vehement’ opposition to Peltier commutation

This story first appeared in NPR’s live blog of Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, where you can find more coverage and context from the day.

Before former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier on Monday, he received a warning from outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents in the 1970s.

Among other things, Wray told the White House that commuting Peltier’s sentence “would be shattering to the victims’ loved ones and undermine the principles of justice and accountability that our government should represent.”

In a statement, Biden said he was commuting Peltier’s sentence “so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.” Peltier is now in his 80s.

Indigenous rights and human rights activists have long called for Peltier to be released from a high-security prison in Coleman, Fla. They have argued that Peltier was wrongly convicted of those murders and have called his imprisonment an “injustice.”

At least 34 members of Congress and one of Biden’s own Cabinet members have also called for Peltier’s release.

This commutation, however, was expressly discouraged by law enforcement.

Wray sent a letter to the White House on Jan. 10. In it, the FBI director expressed “vehement and steadfast opposition to the commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence.”

“I hope these letters are unnecessary, and that you are not considering a pardon or commutation,” he wrote. “But on behalf of the FBI family, and out of an abundance of caution, I want to make sure our position is clear: Peltier is a remorseless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own–Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law.”

Wray, who was appointed by President Trump in 2017, announced he is resigning from his post when Biden leaves office.

Ahead of his decision, Biden was told by members of the National Congress of American Indians that Peltier was in poor health and should be sent home for the last years of his life.

The group’s president, Mark Macarro of the Pechanga Band of Indians, met with Biden on Air Force One in December, according to the organization’s online newsletter.

During the meeting, Macarro told Biden that “Peltier has served five decades in federal prison for a crime that the government has admitted it could not prove.” And Macarro also told him that the FBI remained staunchly against clemency for Peltier because “the FBI wants someone to pay for the loss of their two agents, and Peltier is that person.”

Natalie Bara, president of the FBI Agents Association, said in a statement Monday that they are “outraged” by the commutation. Bara referred to Peltier as “a convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders” of two agents.

“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,” she said in her statement. “It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement.”