President Donald Trump is considering a pardon for homemaking icon Martha Stewart, Trump told reporters on Thursday.
“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” said Trump according to a pool report. “And she used to be my biggest fan in the world… before I became a politician. But that’s OK. I don’t view it that way.”
Stewart was convicted in 2004 of lying to the FBI in a case involving an investigation into whether she participated in insider trading. She was ultimately cleared of the latter crime but was still convicted and jailed for several months.
The prosecutor who put Stewart away was former FBI director James Comey, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Trump also shared he is considering commuting the prison sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s former reality television show, “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 on corruption charges after he was found to be soliciting bribes for political appointments, including Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat after he was elected president. Blagojevich was sent to federal prison in 2012 and is currently in the midst of serving a 12-14 year prison sentence.
The pardon possibilities comes on the same day the president pardoned conservative firebrand Dinesh D’Souza over his 2014 felony conviction involving illegal campaign contributions. They also come as Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has made comments comparing Stewart’s prosecution to Trump’s decision whether or not to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller.
In addition to insider trading, Stewart was also charged with making false statements to investigators, something Giuliani is using to argue that Trump should not agree to speak with Mueller and instead assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.