MILESTONE

Trump Commutes First Prison Sentence

For Sholom Rubashkin, who was convicted of financial crimes.

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.