Bernie Madoff Asks Trump for Clemency

Bernie Madoff is now 10 years into his 150-year sentence for orchestrating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme—and the 81-year-old is looking for a way out. Justice Department records show that Madoff has petitioned President Trump to commute his sentence, and the request is listed as "pending," ABC reports. Madoff is currently incarcerated at a federal prison in Butner, NC. Mark Litt, the chief federal prosecutor in the case, tells CNBC that Madoff received a "fair and just sentence" for his crimes.

Those crimes "caused devastating damage to tens of thousands of victims," Litt said, calling Madoff's request for clemency "the very definition of chutzpah." In 2009, the year Madoff was sentenced, Trump described him as "a sleazebag and a scoundrel without par" and said he knew people who had lost their life savings in the scam. (At least four people linked to Madoff, including his eldest son, have taken their own lives.)