Here are all the people Trump has pardoned so far by Michelle Mark on May 31, 2018, 4:30 PM Advertisement
 President Donald Trump has begun making use of some of his most sweeping, unrestricted powers as president: the right to grant pardons and sentence commutations to people convicted of federal crimes. Trump on Thursday made waves after he tweeted his intent to pardon the far-right pundit and author Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to campaign finance fraud and has since become a vocal Trump supporter and peddler of conspiracy theories. Trump later told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wasn't finished — he is also considering pardoning chef Martha Stewart and ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Trump so far has granted five clemencies: four pardons and one sentence commutation. All five have gone to defendants whose cases landed on Trump's radar via conservative media or celebrities. While pardons essentially forgive people who have been convicted of crimes and restore some of their rights, a commutation reduces prisoners' sentences, usually freeing them immediately. Here are all the pardons and commutations Trump has granted so far: SEE ALSO: Trump floats a pardon bonanza of high-profile people, including Martha Stewart and Illinois' infamous former governor who was on 'Celebrity Apprentice' DON'T MISS: 'Kim has been my war angel': The unlikely story of how Kim Kardashian West is trying to get Trump to free a 63-year-old grandmother from prison Jack Johnson  Trump granted a rare posthumous pardon on May 24 to Jack Johnson, the American heavyweight boxing champion who died in 1946 and was convicted in 1913 of taking his white girlfriend across state lines. Johnson's conviction reeked of racism and injustice at the height of the Jim Crow era. An all-white jury found Johnson guilty of violating the White Slave Traffic Act, also known as the Mann Act, which criminalized transporting women across state lines "for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." Johnson's conviction and one-year prison sentence has prompted debate for years — and Trump is not the first president to consider a pardon. Former President Barack Obama faced the same decision, but his Justice Department recommended against one, so as to focus more on pardons that could benefit living people, a former Obama administration official told The New York Times. Johnson's case received a recent publicity boost from the actor Sylvester Stallone, who visited the Oval Office to watch Trump sign the pardon.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby  Trump in April pardoned Scooter Libby, a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice after a special prosecutor's investigation into the 2003 leak of the CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby was originally sentenced to 30 months in prison, but former President George W. Bush commuted it. Despite intense pressure from his vice president Dick Cheney, who had hired Libby as his chief of staff, Bush declined to grant Libby a pardon, as well. Trump said in a statement announcing the pardon that he didn't know Libby, but "for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly." Libby's case contained echoes of Trump's own legal battles — the president is the subject of a similar probe by a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
Kristian Saucier  In March, Trump pardoned Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor who took photos of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine in 2009. Saucier pleaded guilty in 2016 and served one year in prison. He has previously said he took the photos merely as mementos for his military service. But federal prosecutors accused him of undermining national security by taking the photos, and then obstructing the investigation by destroying a laptop and camera. Conservative media outlets such as Fox News had compared Saucier's case with that of Hillary Clinton, who used a private email server while she was secretary of state but was never prosecuted. Trump used Saucier's case during his 2016 presidential campaign as a means to portray the perceived double standard of Saucier's treatment by federal investigators with that of Clinton's. "Now you can go out and have the life you deserve!" Trump tweeted after granting Saucier's pardon.
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