CLEVELAND — President Joe Biden pardoned 39 people and issued 1,499 commutations on Thursday; among them was disgraced former Cuyahoga County commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who spent over a decade behind bars on corruption charges.
According to the Biden administration, Dimora received a commutation, not a pardon, meaning that his conviction still stands, but his sentence has been reduced.
Dimora's attorney said he is "very happy," but Dimora did not have a comment Thursday.
The move is the latest and one of the most significant from Biden in his exercise of pardon power.
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Former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis spearheaded an effort to get Dimora released from prison in June 2023.
Rokakis said Dimora was in poor health after two bouts of COVID-19.
"He was close to dying. They ran out of ventilators. They kept him alive once on a CPAP machine," he said. "I think that's a lot of suffering."
He said Dimora served more than enough time behind bars.
"We just need to move on," he said. "That [the corruption scandal] happened a long time ago. Some of the people involved are dead. Everybody else is out of prison. In my opinion, some people that should have gone to prison didn't go, so it's over. Gotta keep moving forward."
Dimora was released from prison last June after being put on home confinement due to the CARES Act.
RELATED: Jimmy Dimora back home in Northeast Ohio after being released from prison
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which took effect during the pandemic, allowed imprisoned individuals to be placed in home confinement. Its use was extended beyond the expiration of the covered emergency period.
Dimora was convicted of a slew of charges in 2012, which at the time was one of the largest criminal corruption cases in Ohio history. He was originally sentenced to 28 years in prison but was re-sentenced in June 2022 with a term reduction to 23 years.
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