President Trump Commutes the Sentences of Sholam Weiss and Eli Weinstein

By Yehudit Garmaise

       Until today, Sholam’s Weiss’s scheduled date of release was June 10, 2738.

   On his last day in office, today President Trump signed the clemency papers that commuted the sentence of  Sholam Weiss, who has served 20 years of his original 845-year sentence, the longest sentence in history meted out for a white collar crime.

     For the past year, askanim and activists from organizations such as the National Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, CAN-DO Clemency Foundation, and the Tzedek Association have worked together to gather the support of members of the law enforcement community, 55 former Department of Justice officials and 17 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives to sign a letter that was sent to President Trump to grant clemency to Weiss.

   Congressman Ted Deutch (Fla-D), a Rep. Kelly Armstrong (N.D.-R) co-sponsored the Congressional letter that requested clemency for Weiss.

    Other supporters of Weiss include many New York state politicians, Ed Meese, who served as the attorney general for President Reagan, former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr, federal judges, appellate judges, federal prosecutors, such as former prosecutor Brett Tolman, Boro Park-born lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, and many rabbis and rebbes in the community who all spoke up to get Weiss released from prison. 

     Weiss was freed because no one was able to justify someone being in prison when no one lost money as a result of his actions, explained a source close to Weiss’s case. 

    “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has confirmed in court that restitution has been paid in full,” BoroPark24’s source said. 

   Weiss, who is from Boro Park and whose family now lives in Monsey, is 66 years old and is reported to suffer from chronic health conditions.

     President Trump also commuted the sentence of 38-year-old Eli Weinstein, of Lakewood, N.J., who was sentenced to  In February, Eliyahu Weinstein of Lakewood, N.J., was sentenced to 22 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges that he committed wire fraud and money laundering. Weinstein's sentence was later extended for two more years for orchestrating a fraud that involved Facebook's initial public offering in 2012.

(Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)