Mayor Giuliani yesterday said he’s written President Clinton a letter, urging him to pardon Michael Milken, the ex-junk-bond king whom the mayor prosecuted as a U.S. attorney.
“I wrote to President Clinton. I think it was right before Christmas,” Giuliani told reporters. “I said from my experience, having worked with Michael Milken with regard to prostate cancer, that I felt that he had made a very, very substantial contribution.”
Milken, who was one of the high-profile convictions Giuliani won as the Manhattan federal prosecutor in the late 1980s, is high on the list of potential pardons Clinton is considering in the final days of his presidency.
Last month, Giuliani hinted he’d support a pardon for Milken. The mayor said the financier, who was diagnosed years ago with prostate cancer, was helpful to him when he was stricken with the same disease.
Milken was diagnosed with cancer after serving 22 months of a 10-year sentence. In the years since, he’s become a philanthropist who crusades for a cure for prostate cancer.
“The same zeal, brilliance and however else you want to describe it that he put into creating fortunes for himself and many other people, he’s now applying that to trying to figure out what to do about prostate cancer,” Giuliani said.
“And I think that has to be taken into account by the president. He would fit the criteria for a pardon, given the length of time now that he’s been out of jail, the fact that he’s paid his price . . . I would support the president if the president did that.”