Trump Commutes First Prison Sentence

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued his first federal prison sentence commutation. Sholom Rubashkin, the former owner of a kosher meat-processing enterprise in Iowa who was convicted of financial crimes, was awarded a sentence commutation. In a statement, the White House said it relied on the views of lawmakers from both political parties and “a broad cross-section of the legal community” in making the decision to commute Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence, which was handed down in 2009 for crimes including bank fraud and money laundering. Earlier this year, Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. Unlike a pardon, though, a sentence commutation does not erase Rubashkin’s conviction.