President Trump is assessing “many different” pardon and clemency requests, including one submitted this week by disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
“I will just tell you that the president has received a steady stream of appeals … so he is assessing many different requests,” Conway told reporters at a breakfast in Washington on Wednesday morning.
Trump shocked Republicans late last month when he floated a possible sentence commutation for Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year prison term for corruption in Illinois.
The twice-elected Democrat sought $1.5 million in bribes and attempted to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat shortly after the 2008 election. He was convicted on 17 felony charges and has served six years in prison.
“With Blagojevich, the president made very clear that he thought the sentence was too harsh,” Conway said, declining to describe how his case landed on the president’s radar.
“I won’t reveal that,” she said.
Blagojevich’s lawyers filed paperwork with the Department of Justice on Tuesday, asking Trump to commute the remainder of his sentence.
The 61-year-old, who competed on “Celebrity Apprentice” long before he faced charges of corruption, dispatched his wife last week to encourage the president in several television appearances to intervene on her husband’s behalf.
Trump has also said he is reviewing pardons for Martha Stewart and Alice Marie Johnson, whose case he discussed with reality TV star Kim Kardashian-West in the Oval Office last week. Conway defended the administration’s process for reviewing clemency and pardon requests on Tuesday, noting that Trump has done more to “bring relief to folks who he feels have been treated unfairly” than most modern presidents.
[Update: Trump commutes Alice Johnson’s life sentence in win for Kim Kardashian]
“It is a measured process. There is a vetting process in place. I will tell you, that everybody who should be involved, is involved in the process,” she said.
