WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump granted full pardons or commutations Tuesday to 11 convicted felons, including Michael Milken, the former junk bond king who became a face of the insider trading financial scandals of the 1980s, in a mass clemency that expanded his interventions in judicial matters following his Senate impeachment acquittal.
Among those who had their sentences commuted by Trump was former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has served eight years of a 14 year prison term after he was found guilty for trying to sell an open U.S. Senate seat that had been held by Barack Obama.
The president also made clear he has not ruled out pardoning Roger Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court Thursday. Stone, an informal adviser to Trump, was convicted in November of seven counts of witness tampering and lying to Congress during the special counsel probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
"I haven't given it any thought," Trump told reporters. "But I think he's being treated unfairly."
Trump announced the pardons at Joint Base Andrews as he embarked on a four-day west coast swing and just hours after the White House announced the first pardon, that of former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., who was convicted in a gambling fraud scandal.
He said he also commuted the prison sentence of former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who led the department after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to investigators.
In a statement, Kerik expressed his gratitude to the president, stating that "today is one of the greatest days of my life."
Trump also issued full pardons to Ariel Friedler, Paul Pogue, David Safavian and Angela Stanton. And he commuted sentences for three others: Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz and Judith Negron.
Trump first floated the possibility of pardoning Blagojevich in May 2018 and has been eager to take action, despite warnings of political fallout from commuting the sentence of a politician whose crime exemplifies the kind of corruption the president's "drain the swamp" messaging vowed to root out.
Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of trying to extract a personal benefit from appointing a replacement to take Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate seat after he was elected to the White House in 2008. He began serving a 14 year prison sentence in 2012 in a federal prison in Colorado.
He was set to be released in 2024. Trump's commutation frees Blagojevich from prison without wiping out his conviction.
Blagojevich appeared on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2009, which was then hosted by Trump. On Tuesday, the president denied knowing him, however.
"He seems like a very nice person, don't know him," Trump said of the former Democratic governor.
The Illinois House voted to impeach the governor and proceed to a trial to remove him from office. In January 2009, the state Senate unanimously voted to remove him from office.
