US President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting what he has called a "ridiculous" 14-year prison sentence for former governor Rod Blagojevich and pardoning a former New York police commissioner, among a long list of others.

Key points: Mr Trump took clemency actions related to 11 people, including former governor Rod Blagojevich

Mr Trump took clemency actions related to 11 people, including former governor Rod Blagojevich Mr Blagojevich was convicted on charges of political corruption, including seeking to sell a Senate appointment

Mr Blagojevich was convicted on charges of political corruption, including seeking to sell a Senate appointment Mr Trump made it clear he saw similarities between efforts to investigate his own conduct and those who took down Mr Blagojevich

Others who got a break from Mr Trump included financier Michael Milken, who served two years in prison in the early 1990s after pleading guilty to violating US securities laws, and Edward DeBartolo Jr, the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal after building one of the most successful NFL teams in history.

Mr Trump took clemency actions related to 11 people — his latest interventions in the justice system as he is under growing fire for weighing in on the cases of former aides.

Mr Trump made clear that he saw similarities between efforts to investigate his own conduct and those that took down Mr Blagojevich — a Democrat and former governor of Illinois who appeared on Mr Trump's reality TV show Celebrity Apprentice.

"It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group," Mr Trump said.

Rod Blagojevich was convicted on corruption charges and began serving his 14-year sentence in 2012. ( AP: Spencer Green )

He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former US attorney who prosecuted Mr Blagojevich and now represents former FBI director James Comey, whom Mr Trump fired from the agency in May 2017.

Mr Blagojevich was convicted on charges of political corruption in 2009, including seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama's old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children's hospital. He began serving his 14-year sentence in 2012.

But Mr Trump said the former governor had been subjected to a "ridiculous sentence" that did not fit his crimes.

"That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others," he told reporters.

When Mr Trump publicly broached the idea in May 2018 of intervening to free Mr Blagojevich, he played down the former governor's crimes.

He said Mr Blagojevich was convicted for "being stupid, saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politicians say".

President accused of shielding 'racists and scoundrels'

The clemency actions came as an emboldened Mr Trump continued to test the limits of his office now that the impeachment trial was over.

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The actions drew alarm from Democrat Bill Pascrell Jr, who accused Mr Trump of using his unfettered pardon power "to shield unrepentant felons, racists and corrupt scoundrels".

Mr Trump also pardoned former New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewed to serve as homeland security secretary.

The White House lauded Mr Kerik for having "courageously led the New York Police Department's heroic response to the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001" and said that, "since his conviction, he has focused on improving the lives of others, including as a passionate advocate for criminal justice and prisoner re-entry reform".

"Somebody has to stick up for the people," Mr Trump said.

Mr Pascrell said "the pardoning of these disgraced figures should be treated as another national scandal by a lawless executive".

He was referring specifically to the actions involving Mr Blagojevich and Mr Milken. And he predicted that, following Mr Trump's impeachment acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate, "outrageous abuses like these will accelerate and worsen".



Mr Trump also commuted the sentences of several other people, including Crystal Munoz, who spent the past 12 years in prison after being convicted on marijuana charges.

Her case was championed by the Texas A&M Criminal Defence Clinic, the Clemency for All Non-Violent Drug Offenders Foundation, as well as Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence Mr Trump commuted in 2018 and whose story his campaign featured in a recent Super Bowl ad.

AP/Reuters