President Joe Biden on Tuesday reported that among those picked in his most memorable group of acquittals and substitutions was Abraham Bolden — the previous Secret Service specialist who turned into the main African American to serve on an official detail, during the Kennedy organization.

In 1964, Bolden was charged in connection with attempting to sell a copy of a Secret Service file but only convicted after two trials (the first of which resulted in a hung jury, according to the Biden White House).

Biden’s administration says that key witnesses against Bolden “admitted to lying at the prosecutor’s request” during his second trial. Still, he was sentenced to six years in federal custody after being denied a new trial.

Now 86, Bolden maintains his innocence and has argued that he was targeted for prosecution “in retaliation for exposing unprofessional and racist behavior within the U.S. Secret Service,” the White House said.

Along with the pardon announcement, the White House noted Bolden had received several honors for his “ongoing work to speak out against the racism he faced in the Secret Service in the 1960s, and his courage in challenging injustice.”

Bolden contended in his 2008 book, The Echo From Dealey Plaza, that the charges against him came after he accused other agents assigned to President John F. Kennedy’s detail of drinking the night before Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and being generally derelict in their duty.

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