U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks alongside President Donald Trump on recent Supreme Court rulings in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Joe Raedle/Getty)
The effort comes as Bondi and the Trump administration have sought to reverse some of the Biden administration's efforts on criminal justice reform for certain criminals, and instead moved to prioritize violent crime and cracking down on the nation's worst offenders.
Though a commutation cannot be fully reversed, Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital, Bondi has prioritized ways to penalize these individuals, in coordination with directives from Trump, and to ensure that the "conditions of confinement" are "consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations," according to an earlier DOJ memo.
The eight inmates sent to ADX this week were each convicted of first-degree murder within federal jurisdiction.
Many had been convicted of crimes that were especially heinous or violent. One individual was convicted of murdering a married couple who was camping at a campsite in the Ouachita National Forest in July 2003.
Another was convicted of kidnapping, robbing, and murdering a 51-year-old local bank president by tying him to a concrete block and chain hoist, and tossing him off of a bridge and into a lake.
Many had also killed prisoners while serving time — a factor that can be used in weighing whether to transfer a convicted felon to a higher-security prison.
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President Joe Biden speaks at Green River College in Auburn, Wash., in 2022. Biden used the event to announce the first three pardons of his presidency. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
"After meeting with many of the victims’ families at the Department of Justice and promising to take action on their behalf, eight of these prisoners have been transferred to the Colorado super-max prison ADX. This will ensure that they spend the remainder of their lives in conditions consistent with the egregious crimes they committed," she added.
Shortly after her confirmation as attorney general, Bondi issued a memo aimed at "restoring a measure of justice" to the victims' families.
The measures granted by Biden earned more criticism than former President Barack Obama: As Fox News reported at the time, the vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative.
Bondi hosted victims' families earlier this year to hear their concerns about the commutations, DOJ said. Some said they had been stunned by the eleventh-hour commutations, and that they not been given a heads-up by the Biden administration.
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In February, Bondi issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons ordering an evaluation of where these prisoners should be detained.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-bondi-transfers-former-death-row-inmates-commuted-biden-supermax-prison