A report published by the New York Times Saturday reveals that Vice President Joe Biden prevented President Obama from pardoning Jonathan Pollard.

According  to the report, Biden said in a meeting with 15 rabbis that “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time is up.”

The meeting between Biden and the Rabbis was supposed to bolster failing Jewish support for the presidents reelection campaign, when the topic of Jonathan Pollard was brought up. “If it were up to me, he would stay in jail for life,” Biden is quoted as saying.

Pollard was convicted of spying for Israel in 1986, and is serving a life sentence in federal prison. Although many Jewish organizations rallied for his clemency, all presidents have so far refused. Recently, his request to attend his father’s funeral was also denied.