# Executive Grant of Clemency commuting James R. Hoffa's sentence, 23 December 1971 (National Archives)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-258225384-hoffa-clemency-1971/

President Nixon's Executive Grant of Clemency of 23 December 1971, filed in a Nixon White House staff folder, commuted James R. Hoffa's sentence to six and one-half years on condition that he not manage any labor organization before 6 March 1980.

The National Archives holds this grant in a White House staff folder, "Executive Clemency – James Hoffa [1 of 2]," in Box 72 of the J. Fred Buzhardt files at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The catalog serves the folder as a 128-page PDF of page images with no text layer. This archive viewed pages 1, 8 and 9. Page 1 notes that the folder was released at NARA II on 16 November 2005. The rest of the folder has not been read for this page.

Pages 8 and 9 are an Executive Grant of Clemency. It grants full and unconditional pardons to a list of named persons, remits or commutes other sentences, and then commutes "the sentence of James R. Hoffa, also known as James Riddle Hoffa," to "six and one-half years' imprisonment upon the condition that the said James R. Hoffa not engage in direct or indirect management of any labor organization prior to March sixth, 1980." If the condition is not met, the commutation "will be null and void in its entirety" and he is to be recommitted. The grant recites the two consecutive sentences it shortens: eight years imposed in the Eastern District of Tennessee on March 12, 1964, and five years imposed in the Northern District of Illinois on July 14, 1969, "which consecutive sentences total thirteen years' imprisonment."

The [second page](/media/nara-258225384-hoffa-clemency-1971-p9.jpg), stored here as a separate scan, is dated at Washington "this twenty-third day of December" 1971 and signed by Richard Nixon as President. Below it the Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, certifies that there are "forty-nine applications for executive clemency granted herein."

The district court's opinion in [Hoffa v. Saxbe](/items/courtlistener-hoffa-v-saxbe-378-f-supp-1221/) (1974) records that Hoffa was released on the day of the grant and upholds the condition.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: "Executive Clemency – James Hoffa [1 of 2]," J. Fred Buzhardt files, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/258225384