President Donald Trump has pardoned 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.
The pardon is 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.
Grimm, who represented Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, was charged in April 2014 with tax evasion, but refused to give up his House seat for months. The pardon was earlier reported by Spectrum News 1.
He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2015 to eight months incarceration, seven of which he served in prison and one he served under house arrest.
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.
Trump also on Wednesday commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former gang leader from Chicago, according to the White House official. Hoover, the co-founder of the Chicago-based gang called the Gangster Disciples, was convicted of murder in 1973 and has been serving several life sentences.
Hoover’s commutation was first reported by NOTUS.
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