Trump says he’s considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commutation for Rod Blagojevich

Mr Trump had announced the full pardon of Dinesh D'Souza just before he told reporters about his plans

Mr Trump told reporters he is considering the pardon and commutation on board Air Force One (Getty)

President Donald Trump says that he is considering commuting the sentence for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and pardoning business woman Martha Stewart.

Citing what he views as unfair or harsh treatment for the high-profile American felons, Mr Trump said that he thinks the pair deserve a break.

“Eighteen years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politicians say,” Mr Trump said of Blagojevich, who is serving time in federal prison for soliciting bribes for political appointments as governor, including for the Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama when he left for the White House.

Mr Trump said that he does not know Blagojevich “other than that he was on The Apprentice for a short period of time”, and pointed out that he is a Democrat.

The president continued to say that he is considering a pardon for Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 for charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements after selling her entire stake in a company just a day before that company’s valuation fell by 16 per cent.

She was sentenced to five months in federal prison, followed by supervised release.

“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” Mr Trump said of a potential pardon for Stewart, who also appeared on NBC’s The Apprentice. “And she used to be my biggest fan in the world … before I became a politician. But that’s okay, i don’t view it that way.”

The comments were made to reporters on board Air Force One, and came just after Mr Trump announced a full pardon for Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative author and filmmaker who pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014 by using straw donors to contribute to a Republican Senate candidate in New York.

“Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government,” Mr Trump wrote in a tweet announcing the pardon.

A White House statement said that D’Souza was, in Mr Trump’s view, “a victim of selective prosecution for violations of campaign finance laws”.

“Mr D’Souza accepted responsibility for his actions, and also completed community service by teaching English to citizens and immigrants seeking citizenship. In light of these facts, the President has determined that Mr D’Souza is fully worth of this pardon,” the statement continued.

Mr D’Souza is a contentious figure who once accused Mr Obama’s father of being a “philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realisation of his anti colonialist ambitions” in a 2010 Forbes Magazine cover story. Mr D’Souza also said in that article that Mr Obama — who was president at the time — had adopted that “cause of anti-colonialism” from his Kenyan father.

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who prosecuted Mr D’Souza, said that there was no bias in the prosecution.

“The President has the right to pardon but the facts are these: D’Souza intentionally broke the law, voluntarily pled guilty, apologised for his conduct & the judge found no unfairness. The career prosecutors and agents did their job. Period,” Mr Bharara wrote on Twitter.

In his guilty plea, Mr D’Souza acknowledged that he knew what he was doing was against the law.

“I knew that causing a campaign contribution to be made in the name of another was wrong and something the law forbids,” he said at his plea hearing. “I deeply regret my conduct.”