United States president Donald Trump says he may grant Muhammad Ali a posthumous pardon - seemingly unaware that the boxing legend doesn't need one.
Ali, who died two years ago at the age of 74, received a draft-evasion conviction in 1967.
Ali refused to enter the military during the Vietnam war and his local draft board rejected his application for classification as a conscientious objector.
However, the three-time world heavyweight champion appealed and in 1971 saw his conviction overturned by the supreme court.
It found that the justice department improperly told the draft board Ali’s stance was not motivated by his religious beliefs as a Muslim.
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REX/Shutterstock)Neverthelss, Trump made his grandiose gesture on the White House lawn on Friday, while speaking to reporters before departing for the G7 summit in Canada.
"I'm thinking about Muhammad Ali. I'm thinking about that very seriously and some others," Trump said. “He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now.
“I’m thinking about that very seriously, and some others.”
Trump said he was looking at "thousands of names" of people who he believed could be granted clemency.
Trump recently granted the first African American heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, a posthumous pardon.
Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating a law that made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.
However, his gesture with regards Ali was meaningless.
Ali’s lawyer, Ron Tweel, said: “We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary. The US supreme court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali in a unanimous decision in 1971. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed.”
Earlier this week Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Johnson, a woman whose cause was championed by Kim Kardashian West.
