President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, a former union business manager, according to Dougherty’s lawyer George Bochetto.
Bochetto confirmed to Fox News Digital during a Friday morning phone call that the president had inked the commutation on Thursday.
He said that Dougherty would be “released any hour now.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the lawyer indicated the move will also release Dougherty from needing to pay around $1.6 million for restitution, and that the man will not face monitoring or house arrest, but will be “a free man.”
Regarding those details, Bochetto confirmed to Fox News Digital, “It’s all true.”
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He said the “compassionate release” was “remarkable in its humanity,” indicating that it was “equally as remarkable” that a Republican president granted it to the Democratic political figure.
He said that it demonstrates that “doing the right thing” can be an endeavor that is “bipartisan,” noting that he is “so proud” of Trump.
Bochetto added that he is “so happy for John, and particularly” for Dougherty’s “gravely ill wife, who will now have her husband by her side.”
In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, a White House official said, “John Dougherty has served 2 years for embezzlement and wire fraud. His sentence has been commuted, so he can care for terminally ill wife. Her father had been her caregiver while John was serving his sentence, but he recently passed away.”
Dougherty, a former business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, was sentenced in 2024 to six years in prison.
The U.S. Justice Department said at the time that Dougherty had been sentenced in connection with embezzling funds from the union as well as in connection with payouts provided to a Philadelphia City Council member.
“John Dougherty held himself out as Local 98’s biggest booster,” then-U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement. “But while he was backslapping his electricians with one hand, he was ripping them off with the other. He cheated Philadelphians, too, through his corrupt quid pro quo with Bobby Henon.”
“Our city and its workers deserve so much better than union bosses and politicians whose true priority is looking out for number one,” Romero, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, added at the time. “I want to thank all of the investigators, analysts, prosecutors, and staff who partnered on this case, and, in doing so, stood up for integrity and the rule of law in Philadelphia.”
