Trump says he’s weighing a pardon for late boxer Ali
WASHINGTON — President Trump said he is thinking “very seriously” about pardoning the late Muhammad Ali, an act of clemency that the boxer’s lawyer says is unnecessary because the Supreme Court overturned the heavyweight champion’s conviction in 1971.
And for such future grants of presidential power, Trump said he may seek the recommendations of pro football players and other athletes who have protested racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to say to them, instead of talk — it’s all talk, talk, talk . ... I am going to ask all of those people to recommend to me — because that’s what they’re protesting — people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system,” he said.
Speaking as he left the White House for a world leaders’ summit in Canada, Trump also that he’s considering thousands of additional pardons, including one for the boxing great.
It was not immediately clear why Trump cited Ali as in need of a pardon, given that Ali has no criminal record. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction for resisting the draft in 1971.
“We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary,” said Ron Tweel, Ali’s lawyer. Given the high court’s action, “there is no conviction from which a pardon is needed.”
Ali was born Cassius Clay and changed his name after converting to Islam in the 1960s. He refused to serve in the Vietnam War because of his religious beliefs, declaring himself a conscientious objector, and saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel” with the Viet Cong.
Ali was stripped of his heavyweight crown in 1967. Ali’s legal fight ended in 1971 when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. He regained the boxing title in 1974. Ali died in 2016.
Trump has been on a clemency kick and earlier this week commuted the life sentence of a woman whose cause was championed by reality television star Kim Kardashian West.
Last month he granted a posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. Johnson was convicted in 1913 by an all-white jury of violating the Mann Act for traveling with his white girlfriend.