Posted on 02/18/2020 12:57:11 PM PST by simpson96
WASHINGTON — President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain, and pardoned the financier Michael R. Milken and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, the president announced on Tuesday.
“Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Mr. Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One for a four-day trip to the west coast where he is scheduled to hold three campaign rallies. “He served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him.”
Mr. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, was convicted of tax fraud and lying to the government. And he said he had also pardoned Mr. Milken, the investment banker who was known in the 1980s as the “junk bond king” and who has fought for decades to reverse his conviction for securities fraud.
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Mr. Trump commuted the former governor’s sentence on Tuesday after saying for years that he was considering intervening in Mr. Blagojevich’s case. By commuting the sentence, the president would free Mr. Blagojevich from prison without wiping out the conviction. Republicans have advised the president against it, arguing that Mr. Blagojevich’s crime epitomizes the corruption that Mr. Trump had said he wanted to tackle as president.
The president’s decision came the same day that he pardoned or commuted the sentences of eight others including Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers who pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt and eventually surrendered control of his team.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Milken was railroaded.....
....by Rudy Giuliani...
....by Rudy Giuliani...
Roger Stoned, so to speak
Why Milken? Was he a major GOP donor? From what I have read, he got what he deserved.
I think what Trump is doing here is he’s leaving a horse’s head in the bed of the FBI.
Milken already served his time
Why di he help out that turd Blago?
I’ll probably get flamed for this but I thought Blago got way too much time for the crime. I would have given him 2 years, a fine and community service.
And yes, Blago IS a "political prisoner"! He didn't do what he was blamed and sent to prison for and got a MUCH harsher sentence than Jesse Jackson and his wife got, for actually DOING A CRIME, which Blago didn't do.
Blago may have dirt on the Obamas?
He starts letting people like Blago out and he’s at risk of losing the support of people like me.
Yes, Blago is a Dem, but outside of the Michael Madigan/Obama/Daley "insider" group; so he got super punished for a "crime" he did NOT commit!
WHY...are you that uninformed?
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Trump said he will pardon Obama for all his crimes?
Good. Proper. Proportionate.
Milken was 100% innocent of any real crimes, BTW. And yes, I know that Giuliani is the guy who sent him to prison (Not Rudy’s finest hour). It was a miscarriage of justice when the public and the feds clamorred for SOMEONE to take the rap after the 1978 ‘junk bond’ meltdown. So they picked a guy who created a new class of securities and blamed him. It was a 100% political case helped along by a ‘witch hunt’ hysteria and the fact that no one outside the financial industry even had an understanding of what the product WAS. The Wall Street Journal ran many stories and editorials at the time about the miscarriage of justice that this was.
Blago - proper to commute. He did the crimes, and the time. His sentence was excessive.
Kerik - Don’t know much about his case, so I’ll give POTUS the benefit of the doubt on this one (I am sure he personally knows Kerik, so I am pretty comfortable that he knew what he was doing).
THAT WAS JUST A WARM-UP. MORE ‘WITCH HUNT’ PARDONS ON ‘SUPER TUESDAY’, PLEASE, Mr. President!!!!
TYPO IN MY LAST POST. THE JUNK BOND ‘MELTDOWN’ WAS IN 1987.
He is probably gonna pardon Manafort...Stone...and Flynn...so he is paying forward.
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