Trump pardons former GOP Rep. Michael Grimm amid clemency spree
President Trump on Wednesday took a slew of clemency actions, including pardoning former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) and commuting the sentence of a former Chicago gang leader.
Trump granted a full pardon to Grimm, a White House official confirmed. The former congressman represented Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn from 2011-15. He served seven months in prison after pleading guilty to felony tax fraud.
Grimm was seriously injured last September after he was thrown from a horse during a polo event.
In addition to Grimm, Trump commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, who co-founded the Gangster Disciples and had been serving multiple life sentences in prison.
Hoover was sentenced to life in prison for murder in the 1970s. He was given another life sentence in the 1990s for operating a criminal enterprise. Hoover and his allies have argued for his release under the First Step Act, a criminal justice law Trump signed in 2018.
While Trump's actions will commute Hoover's federal sentence, he is still serving a state sentence. Hoover was being transferred from a federal prison in Colorado to a state prison in Illinois, The Chicago Tribune reported.
NOTUS first reported on Hoover's commutation.
Trump also pardoned Kentrell Gaulden, a rapper who goes by the name 'NBA YoungBoy,' who has faced a litany of legal issues.
The president pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland (R), who pleaded guilty in a corruption investigation in 2004 and was later convicted on federal charges in 2014.
Trump also granted pardons to Mark Bashaw, who was convicted in 2022 for refusing to follow COVID-19 rules in the Army, and Tanner Mansell and John Moore, who were convicted after releasing sharks from a government-sanctioned fishing line, according to the Palm Beach Post.
In addition to those acts of clemency, Trump pardoned Annabelle Valenzuala, Maryanne Morgan, Kevin Basin and Earl Lamont Smith, according to a White House official. Those pardons were part of a push by Alice Marie Johnson, whom Trump has dubbed his 'pardon czar.'
Trump has been on something of a pardon spree in recent days.
Trump pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted on tax evasion and bank fraud charges in 2022. He also pardoned Paul Walczak, who pleaded guilty to tax crimes. That pardon came after Walczak's mother attended a major fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., last month.
Updated at 6:06 p.m. EDT
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