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Early this morning, President Donald Trump took to the south lawn to address the media on his odd G-7 remarks and his stance on pardoning.
He mentioned Alice Marie Johnson and the role Kim Kardashian played in getting her released but also…Muhammad Ali?
Yup, Trump revealed that at the top of the list of nearly 3,000 possible pardons that he’s considering is the world-famous boxer. While Trump may be “very seriously” thinking about posthumously overturning Ali’s conviction for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War in 1967, that conviction was reversed in 1971.
“He was not very popular then, his memory is very popular now. I’m thinking about that very seriously,” Trump said at the White House shortly before a departure for the G-7 summit in Quebec City, Canada.
A lawyer for Ali’s estate, quickly said thanks, but no thanks since it was overturned nearly 50 years ago.
“We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali in a unanimous decision in 1971. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed,” Tweel told NBC News.
Another high-profile Black boxer who Trump used his clemency powers to pardon was Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion. Johnson was criminally convicted in 1913 for transporting a white woman across state lines in 1913.
Trump has also announced that he wanted Russia back in the G-7, thus reforming the G-8. Russia had been previously been thrown out of the group for committing the not-so-small act of annexing Crimea.
