Fresh from pardoning esteemed conservative thinker Dinesh D’Souza, famous for mocking the teenage survivors of a school shooting, Donald Trump announced he was also considering pardoning Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday that he was considering commuting the sentence of Blagojevich, the former Illinois Governor who was sentenced in 2012 to 14 years in prison for corruption charges. Trump told reporters that Blagojevich said something dumb but that “lots of politicians do” and that his sentence was excessive.
The President, breezing past Blagojevich’s effort to effectively sell a seat in the United States Senate, also said that he was considering pardoning Martha Stewart. The former celebrity chef spent five months in prison in 2004 for lying to investigators about an extremely-well timed stock sale in 2001.
“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” Trump said. “She used to be my biggest fan in the world … before I became a politician.”
It’s difficult to see any connection between a disgraced Democratic governor and a former lifestyle guru, but both were previously stars of The Apprentice, Donald Trump’s reality TV program. Stewart hosted a short-lived spin-off of the series in 2005, while Blagojevich was on the Celebrity Apprentice in 2010 before being fired in Episode 4 — partly for not doing enough research on Harry Potter.
Several former Apprentice stars have claimed that, in outtakes of the show, Donald Trump is caught on camera uttering racist and sexist remarks. In 2016 actor Tom Arnold claimed to be in possession of unused Apprentice footage that shows Trump “saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children.”
This claim has yet to be backed up, but this May ex-Apprentice star Summer Zervos issued a subpoena for Apprentice material featuring Trump talking about her and other female contestants in an inappropriate way. Zervos has accused Trump of unwanted groping and kissing.
It is unclear what dirt, if any, lies hidden away in Apprentice tapes or if his apparently loyalty toward those associated is related to his efforts to keep the tapes secret. What is true however is that the President has previously curried favor towards former Apprentice stars, the most notable being Mark Burnett, who helped produce the Apprentice and was drafted in to help plan the inauguration, according to the New York Times.
There are other reasons why Trump may be interested in pardoning the pair. Former FBI director James Comey, who Trump started the day tweeting about, previously had a hand with both prosecutions. Comey helped prosecute Martha Stewart while his close friend, Pat Fitzgerald, helped prosecute Blagojevich.
The Blagojevichs have been doing their best to get Trump’s attention by linking the conviction to James Comey. Rod’s wife, Patti, had previously made a round of cable news appearances, including on Fox News, talking about how her husband’s unjust conviction. Three days ago, Rod Blagojevich penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, saying that his conviction was tied to an abused of power in the Justice Department.
“It is being perverted and abused by the people sworn to enforce and uphold it,” he wrote. “Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.”