Which U.S. President granted the first pardon for a U.S. federal crimial offense?
George Washington granted the first pardon for a U.S. federal criminal offense in 1796, which granted clemency to Joshua Whayor for stealing two hundred and fifty bushels of corn from the state of Virginia.
When President Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, one of his first acts was to grant a pardon for a federal criminal offense, established by a convicted conspirator in the Baltimore Plot to assassinate the President. This pardon was the first in the United States.