High-level Trump administration officials are lobbying the president to pardon Michael Milken, dubbed the “junk bond king” for his work with speculative-debt securities at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the 1980s, Bloomberg reported.
Milken was sentenced in 1990 to 10 years in prison — later changed to two — after pleading guilty to six charges of violating securities and tax laws.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law; Anthony Scaramucci, former director of communications; and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin all support the pardon according to Bloomberg, which cited sources it didn’t identify.
Rudy Giuliani, who led the criminal investigation that resulted in Milken’s conviction on securities charges when he was U.S. attorney for New York and now serves on the president’s legal team, also supports clemency, Bloomberg said.
