John Raby

Associated Press

In a Wednesday, April 6, 2016, file photo, former Massey CEO Don Blankenship is escorted by Homeland Security officers from the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse in Charleston, W. Va. Blankenship has asked President Donald Trump to resist attempts in Congress to enhance criminal penalties for coal executives who violate mine safety and health standards. Blankenship, who recently was freed from federal prison, also asked the president in a letter Tuesday, May 16, 2017, to re-examine a federal investigation into the nation's worst coal mining disaster in four decades.

Ex-Coal CEO Asks Trump for Leniancy

Don Blankenship was recently freed from federal prison for a misdemeanor conviction of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards, after 29 workers from his company died in an explosion.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, file photo, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, left, makes his way out of the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse during a break in deliberations, in Charleston, W. Va. Blankenship is finishing up his one-year federal prison sentence related to the deadliest U.S. mine explosion in four decades. According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, Blankenship is set to be released Wednesday, May 10, 2017, from a halfway house in Phoenix. He must serve one year of supervised release.

Ex-Coal Exec to Be Released from Prison

The former CEO of Massey Energy served a one-year term after 29 miners died in a 2010 explosion.