President Trump commutes sentence for former Philly union boss John Dougherty

KYW(Philadelphia) ^ | 09/03/26 | Pat Loeb

[Kid Shelleen]

President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence for longtime Philadelphia union leader John Dougherty. He is set to be released on Friday.

Dougherty’s attorney George Bocchetto said the president signed the commutation in “a remarkable show of bipartisanship.” Dougherty was a kingmaker in Democratic city politics, but Bocchetto said his situation — serving time in Lewisburg federal prison, separated from his gravely ill wife Cecilia — cried out for compassion.

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TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: ceciliadougherty; commutation; democrats; dougherty; electriciansunion; fbpdplt; ibew; johndougherty; johnnydoc; kevindougherty; pennsylvania; philadelphia; phillycell

[Kid Shelleen]

Dougherty hates Gov Shapiro. Rumors abound he was some dirt on the evil smurf.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Is this the quid pro quo for Dougherty not getting the Philly union vote out for Kamala in the last cycle? Or is there some future relationship brewing here for 2026 or even 2028? And is Johnny Doc even as powerful as he used to be? So many questions.

[bantam]

Hmmmmm?

[Delta 21]

Ok. That should be some kick ass union kick back!

[piasa]

Union boss John Dougherty’s brother Kevin Dougherty is a judge who was elected to office back in Nov 2015.

[kvanbrunt2]

I was in lewisburg prison. scary place. We did a concert there and one of the inmates helped us load up our gear. He picked up two of the 4 foot tall sure speakers over each shoulder.