Trump's clemency spree may lead to more controversial pardons

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday commuted the sentence of a former Illinois governor jailed for corruption, as well as pardoning a New York City police chief imprisoned for tax fraud and a well-known financial fraudster.

The clemency actions, 11 in total, raised expectations that Trump is considering wielding his power in more controversial cases involving close former associates, including longtime confidante Roger Stone, who is due to be sentenced on Thursday.

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"Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out," Trump tweeted on Tuesday of the Stone case.

The most notorious beneficiary of Trump's acts of clemency was Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was removed from his governor's post in Illinois in 2009 and later convicted of essentially selling the senator's seat that had been vacated when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008.

Rod Blagojevich tries to get into his house as he arrives home after his release from Colorado prison, Chicago, February 19, 2020. /AP

Trump, a Republican who has often campaigned on his claim to be fighting corruption in Washington, was vague about his reasoning for freeing Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years and appeared alongside the future president on The Celebrity Apprentice.

"We have commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. He served eight years in jail, a long time," Trump told reporters. "He seems like a very nice person, don't know him."

He issued pardons for Michael Milken, who was charged with insider trading in the 1980s and whose name became a byword for insider trading, Bernard Kerik, a former NYPD commissioner who pleaded guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, and Edward DeBartolo Jr, a former American football executive convicted in a gambling fraud scandal.

Speculation has been building that Trump will pardon his associates Stone and Paul Manafort, both caught up in the wide-ranging investigation into interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Either one would stir more controversy than Tuesday's cases and Trump gave only a hint when asked if he is planning to pardon Stone.

"I haven't given it any thought," he said. "But I think he's being treated unfairly."

(With input from agencies)