Florida authorities have arrested a repeat offender whose federal prison sentence was commuted in the final days of former President Joe Biden’s administration, prompting a state review of clemency actions that officials say affected cases in the Sunshine State.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, announced that Oscar Fowler was taken into custody on Monday by the St. Petersburg Police Department. Fowler was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and one count of felon in possession of a firearm, according to a report from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
Moments ago, we took Oscar Fowler, a dangerous career criminal who was commuted by Biden’s autopen, into custody to face state charges.
Thanks to @StPetePD and @ATF_Tampa for the support. Florida is safer because of our local and federal law enforcement partners!
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) February 23, 2026
Fowler had been serving a more than 12-year federal prison sentence on drug and weapons charges before his punishment was commuted in January last year as part of a broader round of clemency grants issued at the end of Biden’s term, according to state officials.
Authorities said the new allegations mirror conduct similar to Fowler’s prior offenses. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in state prison.
“The Biden administration’s use of the autopen is putting Floridians at risk by allowing dangerous felons back on the street, but we won’t put up with it,” Uthmeier said in a statement, echoing President Donald Trump and other Republican allies who have suggested Biden’s use of an autopen should invalidate pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term.
Uthmeier added that he has directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to review all commutations and pardons issued in Florida using an autopen “to determine whether state-level charges are viable.”
Fowler’s arrest followed a joint investigation involving the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Tampa Field Division, State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit Bruce Bartlett, and the Office of Statewide Prosecution. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said Fowler’s arrest “represents an important step in protecting our community,” adding that the city is safer with him back in custody.
A conservative watchdog group, the Oversight Project, said it warned Florida officials days earlier that Fowler was scheduled for release. The organization praised the rearrest on Monday, with its Vice President of Legal, Kyle Brosnan, saying: “Florida is safer because a violent criminal is no longer on its streets.”
Uthmeier said his office is now examining whether additional cases tied to late-term clemency actions in the Biden administration could be subject to prosecution under state law, though he did not specify how many individuals are under review.
The move by Florida officials follows months of scrutiny by Trump over Biden’s last-minute clemency orders, which involved 1,500 criminal sentences and pardons of 39 convicts, as well as commuting the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates.
Although the autopen is technically and legally a viable method for presidents to utilize, the Trump administration has for months sown doubt about the reason Biden relied so heavily on the autopen, pointing to his record level of usage of the signature device and questioning whether anyone in the administration was using it without his express knowledge or consent amid a noticeable decline in the former president’s cognitive abilities in the latter half of his administration.
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Trump in November declared on Truth Social that he would deem any documents signed by Biden using autopen as “null and void,” adding that any of those orders would be “terminated.”
Although the president’s pardon power is typically binding, the rearrest of Fowler reveals a strategy that state officials may be able to replicate in cases involving federal inmates who were implicated under the Biden’s last-minute commutations.