President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that he is considering pardoning television personality Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to multiple reports.
Trump made the comments on Air Force One after he announced earlier Thursday that he plans to issue a full pardon to conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. D’Souza was sentenced to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating campaign finance laws.
Trump told reporters Thursday that Blagojevich said something dumb but that “lots of politicians” do. He added that he thinks Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence is excessive.
The Democratic former governor started to serve his sentence in 2012, with a scheduled release date of 2024, after his 2011 conviction for misusing his power, The Chicago Tribune reported. According to the newspaper, the conviction covered "an array of wrongdoing, including most notably his attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after his 2008 election as president."
A jury found Stewart guilty in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to authorities about why she unloaded stock just before the price plummeted, according to reports from CNN and The New York Times. She was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement.
Trump said Thursday that Stewart “used to be one of my biggest fans.”
The president has issued several pardons since his January 2017 inauguration. Among others, he’s issued pardons for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby and boxer Jack Johnson.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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