President Trump has commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, a former executive at Agriprocessors who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering. He had served eight years of his sentence.

Rubashkin oversaw operations at Agriprocessors Inc., a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The plant was raided by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in May 2008, and nearly 400 undocumented Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants were arrested, reports the Des Moines Register. Agriprocessors declared bankruptcy as a result of the raid, and investigators found that Rubashkin had falsified invoices and other sales records to make the company appear financially stronger than it was. Prosecutors accused him of using the faked paperwork to continue borrowing on a $35 million line of credit. He was convicted in 2009.

The Trump Administration announced that the commutation of Rubashkin’s sentence had bipartisan support in Washington D.C. Robert Teig, a former assistant U.S. attorney who was involved in the prosecution of Rubashkin, said that Agriprocessors was likely the largest employer of undocumented immigrants in Iowa at the time and that the commutation was “180 degrees” from a get-tough approach on illegal immigration.

“[Rubashkin] couldn’t win legally, factually or morally, so he had to win politically,” he told the Register. “It’s sad when politics interfered with the justice system.”

Source: Des Moines Register