PRESIDENT TRUMP PONDERS PARDONS

President Donald Trump pardons a conservative commentator he claims “was treated very unfairly by our government” and is thinking about clemency for Martha Stewart and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned a conservative commentator he claims “was treated very unfairly by our government!” and announced he’s thinking about clemency for Martha Stewart and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, among “lots” of other people.

“What they did to him was horrible,” Trump told reporters, speaking of his decision to clear the name of Dinesh D’Souza, who had pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud.

It was the latest example of Trump trying to right a perceived wrong with his presidential pardon power, and a move that makes ever clearer that, in the Trump administration, the odds of a pardon have heavily favored those with a celebrity backer, those who have become a cause celebre among conservatives and those with a reality-TV connection.

Trump has been drawn to cases where he believes there was a political motivation to the prosecutions — a situation that may remind him of his own predicament at the center of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election.

Blagojevich and Stewart had connections to Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” show: Blagojevich was a contestant in 2010, and Stewart hosted the 2005 spinoff series, “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.”