Joe Biden repeatedly promised on the 2020 campaign trail that he would pardon everyone serving time in federal prisons “for marijuana” and expunge their records. Last week he seemed to belatedly carry out that promise, announcing with great fanfare that he was issuing “thousands” of pardons.

The problem is that he’s now reinterpreted his previous talk of releasing everyone in federal prison “for marijuana” in such a narrow way that his pardon won’t release even one federal prisoner. It only applies to federal convictions for “simple possession” — a crime for which literally no one is currently serving time in federal prison.

A man I interviewed earlier this year, Daniel Muessig, just started a five-year stint in federal prison for selling marijuana. No one has accused Daniel of messing around with hard drugs or doing anything violent, so he assumed Biden’s campaign promise applied to him and energetically campaigned for him while he was waiting to see what would happen to him in court. Daniel, and thousands of others in similar or worse situations, will remain in prison.