Here are all the people Trump has pardoned so far — and who he could choose next

Associated Press/M. Spencer Green

• President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was "thinking very seriously" about commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has served roughly half of a 14-year prison sentence.

• Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on multiple corruption charges, though Trump said he believed Blagojevich was treated "very unfairly."

• Trump has frequently used his clemency powers on political allies or people who have been championed by the media or celebrities.

• The Constitution grants the president sweeping powers to pardon people or grant clemency.

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again floated a sentence commutation for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has served half of his 14-year prison sentence for corruption.

"He's been in jail for seven years, over a phone call where nothing happens," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "He shouldn't have said what he said, but it was braggadocio, you would say.  I would think that there have been many politicians — I'm not one of them, by the way — but that have said a lot worse over telephones."

Blagojevich was convicted of multiple corruption charges stemming from a scheme to sell the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama, who was elected president in 2008. 

"I've got this thing, and it's f--- golden. I'm just not giving it up for f---- nothing," Blagojevich was famously overheard saying in a phone call.

Trump's clemency power is sweeping — he can decide carte blanche to legally forgive or free anyone, so long as the crimes were federal ones.

Pardons essentially forgive people who have been convicted of crimes, removing any remaining punishments and restoring their rights. Commutations, on the other hand, merely reduce a prisoner's sentence.

A number of Trump's clemencies fall in line with a recent trend of granting pardons to political allies, as well as people who have been championed by conservative media, prominent Republicans, or celebrities.

Here's who Trump has granted clemency to so far.

Ronen Nahmani

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Nahmani had originally been sentenced to 20 years in prison for distributing synthetic marijuana, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.

His commutation garnered widespread support from lawmakers from both parties, notably from Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Ted Lieu and Republican Reps. Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz.

The White House said in a statement that Nammani's case had certain "extenuating circumstances," namely that he was a non-violent, first-time offender whose wife has terminal cancer, and who has five young children.

Nahmani's 11-year-old daughter, Ariella Nahmani, wrote Trump a letter pleading with the president to help her family, saying she feared what would happen if her mother died.

"Our lives have become so sad and miserable," she wrote. "And now mother being sick I am so scared of her getting worse."

Tweet Embed:
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But perhaps the most moving letter came from Mr. Nahmani's 11-year old daughter Ariella who pleaded with the President to free her dad so their lives wont be so "sad and miserable" anymore. pic.twitter.com/RznYkG5L3m

Ted Suhl

Associated Press

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Trump pardoned Ted Suhl today — a former operator of a behavioral health company in Arkansas who was convicted on medical bribery and fraud-related charges in July 2016, stealing millions from Medicaid. https://t.co/doaqkLGAxo

Suhl, an Arkansas businessman, was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in prison for his role in a bribery scheme to boost Medicaid payments to his company. He was set to be released in 2023, but Trump's commutation set him free four years early.

A White House statement about Suhl's commutation noted that federal prosecutors in Arkansas declined to pursue the criminal case against him, but prosecutors in Washington did.

The Arkansas Times, which investigated the allegations against him, reported that Suhl made millions in public money from his faith-based outpatient facilities.

Suhl's clemency request was strongly supported by former Arkansas Gov. and vocal Trump ally Mike Huckabee.

Five July 29 pardons

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Trump granted five pardons for people with whom he didn't appear to have a direct connection, unlike many of his other clemencies.

One of those people, Michael Anthony Tedesco, was pardoned by former President Barack Obama in 2017 for drug-trafficking. But due to a clerical error, his fraud conviction was not pardoned until Trump corrected the issue, according to the White House.

Another pardon went to John Richard Bubala, who pleaded guilty in 1990 to improperly transferring automotive equipment in an effort to "help the town," according to the White House.

Rodney M. Takumi, a member of the Navajo Nation, was pardoned for his 1987 crime of working at an illegal gambling parlor.

Trump also pardoned Roy Wayne McKeever, who was arrested in 1989 for transporting marijuana from Mexico to Oklahoma and who is now an "active member of the Sheriffs' Association of Texas," according to the White House.

The final pardon went to Chalmer Lee Williams, who in 1995 helped a friend steal and sell weapons from checked luggage through his work as a baggage handler. The White House said his supervised release from prison was lifted one year early, and his voting rights were restored by Kentucky's governor in 1995.

Conrad Black

Associated Press/Charles Rex Arbogast

Black is a former newspaper publisher and Trump admirer, who wrote a laudatory biography of Trump in 2018 titled, "Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other."

Black served three and a half years in prison after being convicted of fraud in 2007, the Associated Press reported.

In a National Post op-ed, Black described the phone call he received from Trump announcing the pardon:

Patrick Nolan

YouTube/American Conservative Union

On May 15, Trump pardoned Patrick Nolan, the former Republican leader of California's state assembly who pleaded guilty to racketeering in 1994 after being caught up in a corruption sting by the FBI.

Nolan is friends with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who spearheaded the White House's push for the First Step Act to help reform the criminal-justice system.

"Mr. Nolan's experiences with prosecutors and in prison changed his life," the White House said in a statement announcing his pardon. "Upon his release, he became a tireless advocate for criminal justice reform and victims' rights. In fact, it was because of this work that the President learned of Mr. Nolan's case."

Michael Behenna

Associated Press/Sue Ogrocki

On May 6, Trump pardoned Behenna, a former US Army Ranger convicted in 2008 of murdering an Iraqi prisoner.

Though Behenna was originally sentenced to 25 years in prison for the "unpremeditated murder in a combat zone" of Ali Mansur, the military's clemency and parole board reduced his sentence to 15 years, then released him on parole in 2014, five years after his sentence began.

A top military appellate court raised concerns about the trial court's handling of Behenna's self-defense claim, and Behenna garnered widespread support among military officials and lawmakers in his home state of Oklahoma.

Behenna was accused of fatally shooting Mansur in retaliation for his alleged connection to an IED attack that killed two of Behenna's fellow soldiers.

Military court filings say Behenna shot Mansur during an impromptu interrogation after saying, "This is your last chance to tell the information or you will die," according to The New York Times. Behenna has said he only shot Mansur after he reached for his gun.

Dwight and Steven Hammond

YouTube/KOIN 6

Trump pardoned Oregon cattle ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond in July, both of whom were serving five-year prison sentences for arson.

The ranchers had long clashed with the federal government over public land, and the length of their sentences infuriated many conservatives, who saw the prosecutions as an example of federal overreach.

The Hammonds' cases even sparked the controversy that led to a 41-day standoff in 2016 at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a group of armed protesters who argued that federal control of public lands was unconstitutional.

In a statement, the White House noted that Dwight and Steven Hammond had already served three and four years in prison, respectively, and had paid $400,000 to the federal government in a related civil case.

"The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West," the White House said.

Alice Marie Johnson

Courtesy of Amy Povah and Clemency for All Nonviolent Drug Offenders (CAN-DO).

Trump granted his second-ever commutation to Alice Marie Johnson in June, freeing the 63-year-old grandmother and great-grandmother from a life sentence in prison.

Johnson was given the sentence in 1996 over non-violent drug offenses she had committed several years earlier. Her case received nationwide attention in recent months after the reality-television star Kim Kardashian West championed her release and paid a visit to Trump in a high-profile White House meeting last week.

"Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades. Despite receiving a life sentence, Alice worked hard to rehabilitate herself in prison, and act as a mentor to her fellow inmates," the White House said in a statement. "While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance."

Johnson's daughter Catina Scales told Business Insider the Wednesday afternoon she was en route to pick up her mother from the Aliceville correctional facility in Alabama, where Johnson was released.

"I have been literally shaking ever since I heard this news — this is the best present anyone could have gave me in my life," Scales said. "Nothing will ever trump this feeling."

Dinesh D'Souza

Wikimedia Commons

Trump granted an unexpected pardon to the conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza in May.

D'Souza pleaded guilty in 2014 to illegally using straw donors in 2012 to donate to a Republican Senate candidate in New York. He used the straw donors to funnel his funds to the candidate under their names to try and get around campaign finance laws.

Though D'Souza fully admitted to knowingly violating the law, he lashed out at prosecutors at the time, arguing he was being singled out because of his conservative beliefs.

Though he was spared prison time, D'Souza was sentenced to five years of probation and a $30,000 fine. A pardon relieved D'Souza of any remaining punishments stemming from his conviction, and would restore certain rights, such as his right to vote.

Jack Johnson

Associated Press

Trump granted a rare posthumous pardon on May 24 to Jack Johnson, the American heavyweight boxing champion who died in 1946 and was convicted in 1913 of taking his white girlfriend across state lines.

Johnson's conviction reeked of racism and injustice at the height of the Jim Crow era. An all-white jury found Johnson guilty of violating the White Slave Traffic Act, also known as the Mann Act, which criminalized transporting women across state lines "for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose."

Johnson's conviction and one-year prison sentence has prompted debate for years — and Trump is not the first president to consider a pardon.

Former President Barack Obama faced the same decision, but his Justice Department recommended against one, so as to focus more on pardons that could benefit living people, a former Obama administration official told The New York Times.

Johnson's case received a recent publicity boost from the actor Sylvester Stallone, who visited the Oval Office to watch Trump sign the pardon.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Trump in April pardoned Scooter Libby, a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice after a special prosecutor's investigation into the 2003 leak of the CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Libby was originally sentenced to 30 months in prison, but former President George W. Bush commuted it. Despite intense pressure from his vice president Dick Cheney, who had hired Libby as his chief of staff, Bush declined to grant Libby a pardon, as well.

Trump said in a statement announcing the pardon that he didn't know Libby, but "for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly."

Libby's case contained echoes of Trump's own legal battles — the president is the subject of a similar probe by a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

Kristian Saucier

YouTube/Compassionate Conservatism

In March, Trump pardoned Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor who took photos of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine in 2009. Saucier pleaded guilty in 2016 and served one year in prison.

He has previously said he took the photos merely as mementos for his military service. But federal prosecutors accused him of undermining national security by taking the photos, and then obstructing the investigation by destroying a laptop and camera.

Conservative media outlets such as Fox News had compared Saucier's case with that of Hillary Clinton, who used a private email server while she was secretary of state but was never prosecuted.

Trump used Saucier's case during his 2016 presidential campaign as a means to portray the perceived double standard of Saucier's treatment by federal investigators with that of Clinton's.

"Now you can go out and have the life you deserve!" Trump tweeted after granting Saucier's pardon.

Sholom Rubashkin

AP Photo/ Andrea Melendez, Pool

In late 2017, Trump issued his first commutation to Sholom Rubashkin, an Iowa meatpacking executive convicted of bank fraud in 2009 and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Rubashkin had served eight years by the time Trump commuted his sentence and set him free.

Unlike Trump's other clemencies, the decision to commute Rubashkin's sentence had earned widespread bipartisan support, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Rubashkin's clemency bid also received the support of more than 100 legal professionals, including US attorneys general and federal judges.

They argued in a letter to Trump that Rubashkin was a first-time, non-violent offender who received a much tougher sentence than many people sentenced to "murder, kidnapping, sexual abuse, child pornography, and numerous other offenses exponentially more serious than his."

Joe Arpaio

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File

In August 2017, Trump gave his first-ever pardon to Joe Arpaio, the bombastic former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.

The 85-year-old ex-lawman is best known for illegally detaining Latinos and keeping inmates in brutal jail conditions during his 24-year tenure as sheriff. His aggressive tactics ultimately led to a criminal conviction after he violated a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.

Arpaio had been an early and vocal supporter of Trump during his presidential campaign, often parroting Trump's hardline stance on immigration, so the move was widely expected.

Yet it was still an unusual pardon, as Arpaio had not even been sentenced at the time. Though Trump may pardon whomever he wishes, people who petition for presidential pardons are told by the Justice Department to wait at least five years after completing their prison sentences before they file applications.

Who could be next?

Evan Agostini/AP; Charles Rex Arbogast/AP; Michelle Mark/Business Insider

Trump has also weighed pardons and commutations for a variety of other high-profile cases.

He told reporters last May he was considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting Blagojevich's sentence in a string of clemency announcements he unexpectedly made in June 2018.

A jury found Stewart guilty in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about the reasons she sold shares of a company. She served five months in prison.

Blagojevich is not eligible for release until 2024, but he has insisted throughout his prison term that he is innocent, according to news outlets that have interviewed him.

Trump said Wednesday that he believed Blagojevich has served enough time, and that he was moved by watching Blagojevich's wife defend him on television.

"I watched his wife, on television, saying that the young girl's father has been in jail for now seven years, and they've never seen him outside of an orange uniform," Trump said. "Not a friend of mine. He's a Democrat, not a Republican. It's Illinois. I think he was treated very, very unfairly, just as others were. Just as others were."

The Constitution is quite sweeping in granting presidents the power to pardon, so Trump can pretty much decide carte blanche to legally forgive or free anyone who's been convicted of a federal crime.

"He shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment," Article II, Section 2 reads.