President Donald Trump announced that he will offer clemency to disgraced Wall Street financier Michael Milken — the so-called 1980s "junk bond king."
The president announced the decision Tuesday afternoon, after previously commuting the prison sentence for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoned former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik and former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly pressed Trump to pardon his friend Milken, who in pleaded guilty in 1989 to securities fraud and paid $600 million in fines.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington last month requested all communications from Mnuchin that contain the words "pardon" or "pardoning" to determine whether he had advocated for his friend.
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