Shortly before leaving office on Monday, former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, a far-left activist convicted of the 1975 murder of two. FBI special agentsRonald Williams and Jack Coler, who were killed in a shooting in South Dakota.
Peltier’s last bid for parole failed in July. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama rejected clemency requests for him, but he had supporters among other prominent Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sandersas well as former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
The move angered the FBI Agents Association and came days after outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a letter to Biden urging him not to release the killer.
“The FBIAA is outraged by President Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, the convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams,” FBIAA President Natalie Bara told Fox News. Digital. “This disgraceful last-second act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but frees him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability. It is a cruel betrayal of the families and colleagues of these fallen agents and is a slap in the face to law enforcement.”
DOJ COMMISSION REJECTS RELEASE TO FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST CONVICTED OF MURDERING 2 FBI AGENTS
Leonard Peltier, leader of the American Indian Movement, is led across the Oakalla prison training grounds to a waiting helicopter. After a protracted legal battle, Canadian Justice Minister Ron Basford ordered Peltier deported to face charges of murdering two FBI agents. (Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images)
On January 10, Wray begged Biden not to.
“I hope these letters are unnecessary and you are not considering a pardon or commutation,” Wray 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 ruthless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own — Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Peltier should receive any relief from his conviction or punishment is completely unjustified and would constitute an insult to the rule of law.”
Peltier, now 80 and in poor health, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders, plus another seven years for the attempted armed escape. He did not appeal his case more than once. His supporters feared he would die in prison and expected President Biden to release him.
“For nearly 50 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges, multiple parole boards and six presidential administrations have weighed the evidence and considered Peltier’s arguments,” Wray wrote. “Each came to the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are without merit and his convictions and sentence must stand.”
Biden outvoted him.
PRESIDENT BIDEN PARDONED HIS BROTHERS AND SISTER JUST MINUTES BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE
FBI Special Agents Ronald Williams, left, and Jack Coler, right, shown in their official FBI portraits. Both were executed at close range on June 26, 1975, after being wounded in a shootout. Leonard Peltier was convicted of their murder. (FBI)
It’s the latest in a series of pardons, commutations and plea deals that Biden has given convicted killers on his way out of office. He spared the death penalty for 37 of 40 federal inmates, and his attorney general, Merrick Garland, overturned the death penalty for a brutal MS-13 leader responsible for seven murders. The two victims, teenage high school girls, were massacred with machetes and baseball bats.
He also granted a last-minute preemptive pardon to his family members and allies, including his siblings, Ph.D. Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and members of the Committee on January 6. He had previously pardoned his son Hunter.
Read FBI Director Wray’s letter to Biden Leonard Peltier:
Haaland praised Peltier’s commutation.
“I can’t say enough words about replacing Leonard Peltier,” she wrote on X. “His release from prison marks a measure of justice that has long eluded so many Native Americans for so many decades.”
FATHER OF TEENAGE MS-13 VICTIM GOES TO PLEA DEAL IN LAST MOMENTS OF BIDEN’S DAY
On June 26, 1975, Williams and Coler were searching for a group of armed robbery suspects on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Although Peltier was not one of them, he was traveling in a vehicle that caught the agents’ attention.
The agents did not know that Peltier was also the subject of an arrest warrant for the attempted murder of an off-duty police officer in Wisconsin.
Former President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)
According to court documents, Williams radioed Coler that someone in the vehicle was about to start shooting at them. Gunfire rang out. Both agents were wounded. According to the FBI, both agents were killed by point-blank shots to the head from Peltier’s AR-15.
Coler, originally from Bakersfield, California, was an LAPD officer before joining the FBI in 1971. Williams was also a native of California, from Glendale. He he joined the FBI in 1972.
“Pardoning Leonard Peltier is not an act of justice, it’s giving him up,” said Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent who lost two of her colleagues to on-duty violence.
“I lost my dearest friend and colleague, FBI Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger and Special Agent Daniel Alfin when they were killed on February 2, 2021, while executing a search warrant to stop a child predator,” she told Fox News Digital. “It is an indescribable pain to lose powerful warriors who selflessly protect others.”
A 1985 prison portrait of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in 1976 of the murders of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. (MPI/Getty Images)
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Four men were arrested in their deaths, but only Peltier was convicted, according to the FBI. The government dropped charges against James Eagle, the robbery suspect Williams and Coler were looking for at the start of the shooting. Two other men, Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, were acquitted at trial in 1976.
He is expected to be placed under house arrest after his release from federal prison.
“Agents Coler and Williams gave their lives in service to this nation, and their families continue to bear the heavy burden of that sacrifice,” Bara said. “The loss of these heroes is felt as deeply today in the FBI family as it was in 1975. Leonard Peltier has never expressed remorse for his actions. Special Agents Coler and Williams were stolen from their families, deprived of the chance to share precious time and milestones with their loved ones should not have received the mercy he so cruelly denied the Coler and Williams families.”
