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Senator warmly welcomes home man who executed two FBI agents after Biden commuted his sentence

February 20, 2025 | | Print Article

A so-called Native American activist convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975 was welcomed home by a congressional Democrat on Tuesday after former President Joe Biden commuted his sentence.

According to the FBI, in 1975 two FBI agents named Jack Coler and Ronald Williams traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to serve arrest warrants for robbery and assault.

What ensued next was a shoot-out during which the two agents were killed at close range by activist Leonard Peltier.

“An examination of the physical evidence concluded that Agents Williams and Coler had been killed at close range by a .223 type bullet,” the FBI notes. “According to witnesses, Peltier was identified as the only person in possession of a weapon that would fire a .223 type bullet at the time of the murders. The weapon was an AR-15 rifle.”

Two years later, Peltier was convicted of murdering the two agents and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

After his sentencing, he and other Native American activists began claiming that he wasn’t the shooter (though they failed to name anybody else), that he’d been railroaded by federal officials, and that his trial had been riddled with misconduct, including witness coercion.

Now flash forward to former President Biden’s final days in office, when 120 tribal leaders penned a letter to the then-president begging him to grant clemency to Peltier.

“Mr. President, we honor your demonstrated commitment to Indian Country,” they wrote. “You have stood with us many times – both in the White House and in the U.S. Senate. Our standing in the world as a champion of freedom, justice, and human rights cannot be maintained in a system that allows Leonard Peltier to die in prison.”

Biden fell hook, line, and sinker for their claptrap and subsequently decided to commute Peltier’s sentence down to indefinite home confinement/house arrest at his reservation in North Dakota.

The then-president did this in late January despite massive opposition from the FBI, including from then-director Christopher Wray.

“In a private letter sent to Biden [in January] … Wray reiterated his position that ‘Peltier is a remorseless killer,’ and urged the president not to act,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

“Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law,” Wray added.

A month later, Peltier was released this past Tuesday to fanfare from Democrats like Sen. Tina Smith.

Look:

Smith’s stunning tweet sent shockwaves through Twitter/X and culminated in hundreds of people angrily tweeting back at her.

“He murdered two FBI agents,” one critic wrote. “Please resign and let someone responsible hold your office.”

“You are truly a repugnant and despicable person to say that,” another critic wrote. “Nothing should be said because of the shame that you should feel for this murderer to be let of prison early for the brutal murder of two FBI agents. Both agents were not even 30 years old when they were shot, execution style, by this animal.”

See more responses below:

Vivek Saxena
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