Trump commutes sentence of convicted union leader John ‘Johnny Doc’ Dougherty, lawyer says

Dougherty was convicted in 2023 of bribing a Philadelphia City Council member and embezzling nearly $600,000.

PHILADELPHIA — Former Philadelphia union leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty could soon get out of prison after President Donald Trump signed a commutation ending his six-year sentence Thursday, his attorney, George Bochetto, told NBC10.

Dougherty was convicted in 2023 of bribing a City Council member and embezzling nearly $600,000 from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Known as “Johnny Doc,” Dougherty ran the union for nearly three decades and was a Democratic power broker in Pennsylvania politics, steering tens of millions of dollars in union campaign contributions to candidates.

Dougherty was previously indicted in 2019 after a lengthy FBI investigation.

In November 2021, he and a City Council member were convicted of conspiracy in a corruption trial. Prosecutors said Dougherty kept Bobby Henon, a union electrician-turned-City Council member, on the payroll to help his union keep a tight grip on construction jobs.