WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is pardoning 17 people, largely for minor offenses.
The White House announced the president's pardons Friday afternoon. Among the crimes committed by those receiving pardons were falsely altering a money order and unauthorized acquisition of food stamps.
The pardons are the first of Obama's second term. He granted his first pardons in December 2010, to nine people convicted of drug possession, counterfeiting and mutilating coins.
He also issued two separate batches of pardons in 2011, including eight people in May for relatively minor offenses and five people that November.
