CNN Wire: Trump issues slew of pardons, including to former Gov. John Rowland

(CNN) — President Donald Trump used his pardon power to grant clemency to a wave of individuals this week who had been convicted of crimes that range from public corruption, guns and even maritime-related offenses, according to multiple officials.

The pardons are the latest in a string of clemency actions taken by Trump, who has largely circumvented the usual process run through the Department of Justice and instead has used his powers to commute or pardon individuals with ties to his political allies.

One notable name was Michael Grimm, the former New York congressman who served seven months in prison for tax evasion a decade ago, according to a White House official. That pardon was first reported by Spectrum News 1.

Aside from his criminal conviction, Grimm may be best remembered for threatening to break a reporter in half “like a boy” when the reporter questioned him about his campaign finances during an incident caught on camera at the Capitol in January 2014. He also threatened to throw the reporter off a balcony.

Grimm, who worked as an on-air personality for Newsmax, was badly injured in a fall from a horse during a polo competition last year.

According to officials, other pardons included:

Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, who was convicted twice in federal criminal cases.
Kentrell Gaulden, the rapper who goes by NBA YoungBoy and was convicted in a federal gun crimes case.
Kevin Eric Baisden, who was convicted of fraud. An official said he “suffered from substance abuse issues” in his teens and 20s “which led him to be convicted and arrested on a number of nonviolent misdemeanor offenses.” The official said he has been sober for “nearly 14 years” and is “set to graduate from law school, but his criminal record continues to follow him and might not be admitted to state bars.”
Mark Bashaw, an officer who formerly served at the Army Public Health Center and was convicted by a special court-martial of violating lawful orders to comply with COVID-19 mitigation measures, per the Army Times.
Tanner Mansell and John Moore Jr., who one official said “are cases of government overreach. They were charged with theft of property within special maritime jurisdiction of the United States felony offense and they were convicted in 2022.” Each was sentenced “to one year probation,” the official added.
James Callahan, a labor union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to properly report gifts, was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.
Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati City Council member who was sentenced to 16 months in prison for “bribery and attempted extortion by a government official,” according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Jeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state senator who was sentenced to 46 months in prison for accepting bribes and tax fraud.
James and Marlene Kernan, a New York couple who pleaded guilty to willfully employing a convicted felon at their business.
Earl Lamont Smith, who was sentenced on charges of theft of government property, stealing thousands of government computers, and selling them for profit.
Charles “Duke” Tanner, a former professional boxer who was sentenced to life in prison for drug conspiracy. Trump commuted his sentence during his first term.

Trump also on Wednesday commuted the sentences of nine individuals, a White House official said, including Larry Hoover, the notorious co-founder of Chicago’s Gangster Disciples street gang. He was serving six life prison sentences in the federal supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, following a 1997 conviction on dozens of charges that included running a criminal enterprise from jail.

Hoover, who is now 74, had been seeking a commutation for years under the First Step Act, which Trump signed into law in 2018. Three years later, US District Judge Harry Leinenweber denied Hoover’s request, calling him “one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history.”

His advocates continued to push the Biden administration to consider a commutation, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

“We did what so many said was impossible,” a Hoover attorney, Justin Moore, told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. “We got Larry Hoover out of federal prison.”

Hoover is also serving a sentence of up to 200 years on state murder charges in Illinois, which are not impacted by Trump’s action on Wednesday. His advocates have pushed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to commute that sentence as well.

Hoover’s commutation was first reported by NOTUS.

The sentences of Lawrence Duran, Michael Harris, Marian Morgan, Garnett Smith, Edward and Joe Sotelo, Anabel Valenzuela and Imaad Zuberi were also commuted.

Zuberi is an American venture capitalist who donated $900,000 to Trump’s first inaugural committee and was also a longtime Democratic donor on fundraising committees for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in prison for falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US government officials and obstructing a federal investigation involving the inaugural fund.

Additionally, the president on Tuesday signed full pardons for imprisoned reality show couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2022 for a conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million, according to a White House official.

In addition to the bank fraud convictions, they were also found guilty of several tax crimes, including attempting to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump is expected to issue even more commutations in the coming days. Trump’s newly minted pardon attorney Ed Martin reviewed dozens of commutation applications last week for Trump to review, according to a source familiar with the matter.