President Donald Trump on Friday said that he is planning to pardon the late boxing champion Muhammad Ali, CNN reported.
While speaking to reporters outside the White House before departing to the Group of Seven Summit in Quebec, Trump stated his plans about pardoning someone who was “not very popular.”
“He was not very popular then; his memory is very popular now. I’m thinking about Muhammad Ali,” Trump said. “I’m thinking about that very seriously.”
Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. military in 1967 during the Vietnam War, citing religious objections.
Because of that he was stripped of his heavyweight title and charged with draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison.
However, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971 and he never went into prison. Ali died in 2016 at the age of 74.
When asked if non-celebrities or those without celebrity advocates have a chance of receiving a pardon, Trump acknowledged that many applicants had been “treated unfairly.”
“We have 3000 names… many of those names have been treated unfairly,” he said. “I thought Kim Kardashian was great because she brought Alice to my attention… better than any celebrity I could pardon.”
Trump also repeated his statement that he can pardon himself for any potential crimes, adding that he is not going to do that because he hasn’t broken the law.
“I have an absolute right to pardon myself,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for Canada to attend the G-7 summit.
Trump’s statement is the second time in the last few days where he claims his legal right to pardon himself in the event that he is charged with an offense.
“As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never-ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
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