Black agent who helped to guard JFK gets pardon
The first African-american to serve as a presidential protection agent, who was part of President John F Kennedy’s Secret Service detail and was later convicted of bribery, has been pardoned by US President Joe Biden.
Abraham Bolden, 87, has always maintained that he was framed to prevent him talking about misconduct and racism in the agency.
He served 39 months in jail for seeking US$50,000 to hand an investigation file to its subject, a man later convicted of counterfeiting who would go on to claim that he was coerced by the government to incriminate Bolden falsely.
Biden issued the first three pardons of his presidency yesterday, and commuted the sentences of 75 other people for non-violent, drug-related convictions, in line with a campaign promise.
US presidents have the power of clemency under Article II of the US Constitution. President Donald Trump issued 143 pardons and 94 commutations, including for his political and business allies.
‘‘America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption and rehabilitation,’’ Biden said.
Bolden, from Chicago, joined
JFK’S protection team in 1961. He was tried in 1964 for seeking a bribe.
Bolden says he was targeted because he planned to speak out at the Warren Commission into Kennedy’s assassination about heavy drinking and other problems among his Secret Service colleagues.
Also pardoned was Dexter Jackson, 52, of Athens, Georgia, who was convicted in 2002 for using his pool hall to traffic cannabis. After his release, he changed his business into amobile phone repair service that employs students, and has built and renovated homes in areas that lacked affordable housing.