Trump plans to issue 100 pardons and commutations on his final day in office, many to people he thinks could help him prosper after the presidency, reports say

• President Donald Trump plans to pardon or commute the sentences of 100 people on his last day in the White House, CNN reported.
• The list was drawn up during a Sunday meeting between Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and other aides, and will likely be made public on Monday or Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.
• Some allies believes Trump expects to benefit from many of those pardons and commutations after the presidency, CNN reported, citing a source: "He likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him."
• The list of pardons and commutations could include Dr. Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor convicted for healthcare fraud, and the rapper Lil Wayne.
• The list is not expected to include himself, CNN said, though the president has been considering pardoning himself and his family.
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President Donald Trump plans to pardon or commute as many as 100 people on his final full day in office, CNN reported.

A list of names was drawn up by Trump on Sunday during a meeting with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and a number of other aides, The Washington Post reported.

The decisions are expected to be announced on Monday or Tuesday, The Post reported.

While the identities of the 100 are not known, some of the president's allies believes that many of the pardons or commutations will go to people he expects to benefit from in the future, CNN said.

"Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him," a source told CNN.

Trump is expected to depart the White House on the morning of January 20 — the day of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration — and permanently relocate to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

After that, Trump is reportedly considering reviving his TV career, building a $2 billion presidential library, launching a TV or social media network, or running for president again in 2024.

And in the final months of his presidency, Trump has been inundated with requests for pardons, including from "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic and "Q-Anon Shaman" Jacob Anthony Chansley.

However, a pardon may not come cheap.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that an assistant to Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, told an ex-CIA officer that a pardon would "cost $2 million." Giuliani told The Times he doesn't recall the meeting.

Trump has discussed a pardon for Giuliani with advisors, The Times reported in early December.

Read more: Biden's inauguration is raising tens of millions of dollars but won't say how it's spending the money

Though the identities of the 100 people are still unknown, CNN reported that Dr. Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor from Florida who is currently in jail after being found guilty of healthcare fraud, is expected to be one of those granted clemency.

Bloomberg reported last week that rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both of whom currently face jail time for criminal offenses, were also being considered for a pardon.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior advisor Stephen Miller, director of personnel John McEntee, and social media director Dan Scavino, were also being considered, the outlet said.

For weeks, it has been rumored that Trump was considering a pardon for himself and his immediate family, but a source told Reuters that president was not planning to as of Sunday.

Neither Trump, his family members, nor his top aides have been charged with a crime, but it is possible for a president to issue preemptive pardons.

According to CNN and Reuters, aides have for weeks tried to dissuade the president from issuing a preemptive pardon to himself, saying it would make him look guilty.

Trump has issued a slew of pardons and commutations since losing the 2020 presidential election.

On December 22, Trump pardoned 20 people, including two Trump campaign associates who were ensnared in the FBI's Russia investigation, two Border Patrol agents accused of shooting an unarmed immigrant, and four former Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.

The next day he pardoned the longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone, his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner's father Charles, and a former K-9 police officer who set her police dog on an unarmed homeless man in 1995

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting a group of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol in an attack that killed five people.

Trump now faces a trial in the Senate, whose members could vote to bar him from holding federal office again.

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