On Tuesday, President Donald Trump commuted the 14-year sentence of disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich was convicted of political corruption, including seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. But Trump said he had been subjected to a “ridiculous sentence” that didn’t fit his crimes. The commutation will allow Blagojevich's release from prison four years before he would have been eligible for parole. It will also clear his convictions.
The President also pardoned former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, who served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewed to be Homeland Security secretary. Additionally, Trump pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws and served two years in prison in the early 1990s, as well as Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal.
Also pardoned were Ariel Friedler, a technology entrepreneur, who pleaded guilty to accessing a computer without authorization; Paul Pogue a construction company owner who underpaid his taxes; David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructing an investigation into a trip he took while he was a senior government official; and Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.
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