Trump’s Remarks to Jim Brown Had No Impact on Felon’s Sentence

A convicted felon’s multiple life sentences weren’t shortened when then-President Donald Trump told football great Jim Brown and his wife on the phone that he wanted to commute the felon’s sentences, the Fourth Circuit said Tuesday, affirming the district court’s judgment.

James Rosemond’s convictions stemmed from federal prosecutions in the 2010s for his drug trafficking activities and a murder. He filed for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that Trump’s conversations with the Browns, who were lobbying to get him clemency, commuted his sentence to time served. The district court ruled that a grant of clemency has to be in ...