Trump 'Seriously Thinking About' Commutation For Blagojevich

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday he was considering commuting imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence. Blagojevich has served about six years of a 14-year sentence for corruption. His wife, Patti Blagojevich, issued a statement saying her family is "encouraged" by the president's remarks.

Trump made the comments to the press in his office Thursday, saying he is considering pardoning or commuting the sentences for Blagojevich as well as Martha Stewart. In 2004, Stewart was convicted of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding and making false statements to federal investigators.

Trump made the remarks after reporters asked about his full pardon of conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted in 2014 of making an illegal campaign contribution.

"I'll tell you another one, there's another one I'm thinking about, Rod Blagojevich," Trump told pool reporters Thursday. "Eighteen years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other politician, you know that many other politicians say," Trump said, mistakenly adding four years to Blagojevich's sentence.

"I am seriously thinking about, not pardoning, but I am seriously thinking of a curtailment of Blagojevich," the president said, adding that Blagojevich's actions don't justify the length of his sentence "If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement, there was a lot of bravado but it does not .. plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse," Trump said, noting that Blagojevich is a Democrat, "he's not my party."

Trump appeared to be referring to the infamous wiretap recording of the former Illinois governor attempting to see what he could get in exchange for then-President Barack Obama's Senate seat.

"I've got this thing and it's f---ing golden," he said in the recording. "And, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f---in’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it."

While Blagojevich may not be a member of Trump's political party, the two men do know each other. Trump famously fired the ex-governor in 2010 when he appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice."

WATCH: Donald Trump fires Rod Blagojevich on "Celebrity Apprentice"

During the conversation, Trump also said Stewart was "harshly and unfairly treated. And she used to be my biggest fan in the world before I became a politician."

Trump's comments come days after Blagojevich wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming he is in prison for "practicing politics" and insisting he never violated campaign finance law.

Trump also recently pardoned the late heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, an African-American convicted in 1913 of transporting a white woman —who would later become his wife — across state lines. A 1910 law made it a felony to transport a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes."

Prior to the news of Trump's remarks, Patti Blagojevich said on Twitter that she planned to appear on Fox News with Martha MacCallum on Thursday evening. In recent weeks, the ex-governor's wife has spoken out in support of Trump amid investigations of Russian collusion.

On May 3, she told Fox News it was "deja vu all over again" after conservative host Laura Ingraham pointed out that several of the figures in Blagojevich's corruption case — then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, then-FBI official James Comey and then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald — are involved in the Trump probe.

Patti Blagojevich called Comey, Mueller and Fitzgerald "politically-motivated opportunists" with "unchecked power," saying they used "out-of-control prosecutors" against her husband.

"(Trump has) given us something that has been hard to come by recently…hope," she said in a statement Thursday morning, according to NBC Chicago.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)