President Trump has granted a pardon to former media mogul and society figure Conrad Black, who was convicted of fraud in 2007. Black is also…
President Trump has granted a pardon to former media mogul and society figure Conrad Black, who was convicted of fraud in 2007.
Black is also a friend of the president’s, and frequently praises him in his newspaper columns. Last year, Black published a biography of Trump, titled Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.
“Donald Trump’s nature has always been to believe that almost anything can be achieved—that almost any obstacle and challenge can be overcome—through very hard work and cunning,” Black writes in the first chapter.
Black grew a newspaper empire from one newspaper in Quebec to what was at one point the third-largest newspaper company in the world, with the Chicago Sun-Times and the London Daily Telegraph among its holdings.
In 2007, Black was convicted of obstruction of justice and fraud, for illegally pocketing money that should have gone to stockholders. He spent more than three years in prison. During his 2007 trial, Trump had been expected to testify as a witness in Black’s defense, before Black’s lawyers decided to not have him testify.
An appeals court later overturned two of the convictions but left two in place, according to the Associated Press. He was deported to Canada upon release in 2012, and barred from returning to the U.
