CNN’s Jake Tapper compared President Trump’s recent string of pardons to the gifts Oprah Winfrey frequently gives to members of her audience.
The comments come after Trump revealed Thursday that he pardoned conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, who Trump claimed had been “treated very unfairly” by the government.
Trump later shared with reporters on Air Force One Thursday that he was considering pardoning businesswoman Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, both of whom have connections to Trump’s former show, “The Apprentice.”
“Martha Stewart, Blagojevich, if other Celebrity Apprentice contestants are in need of a pardon, now is a good time to raise your hand,” Tapper said Thursday.
“President Trump seemingly passing out pardons to heroes of the far-right almost as eagerly as Oprah once gifted Pontiacs to suburban moms,” he added.
[Opinion: Trump’s pardon of Dinesh D’Souza signals he’ll also pardon anyone caught up in the Mueller probe]
D’Souza pleaded guilty in 2014 to a federal charge of providing illegal campaign contributions to Republican Wendy Long’s Senate campaign against Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in 2012.
A Manhattan jury found Stewart was guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal prosecutors concerning a biotechnology company’s stocks.
Meanwhile, Blagojevich was convicted of attempting to cheat a hospital for campaign donations, and for efforts to sell former President Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he moved to the Oval Office.
According to Len Goodman, an attorney for Blagojevich, a request for commutation is being updated.
“We submitted a request for commutation. President Obama did not act on it. We are now in the process of updating it,” Goodman said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Of course, President Obama is not bound by formal procedure. He can issue a pardon or a commutation He has the power to correct an injustice.”
