President Trump signed a full pardon on Monday for Rod R. Blagojevich, the previous Democratic governor of Illinois who was convicted of corruption in 2011 in a scheme to promote a Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama.
“It’s my honor to do it,” Mr. Trump stated within the Oval Workplace of the pardon. “I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people that I had to deal with.”
Mr. Blagojevich, who served as Illinois governor from 2003 to 2009, didn’t instantly remark.
The pardon was the most recent overture between the president and the previous governor, who continues to be identified in Chicago merely as “Blago.” Simply 5 years in the past, Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence, permitting him to be launched from a Colorado jail after eight years and return to his household house on the North Aspect of Chicago.
“It’s been a long, long journey,” Mr. Blagojevich stated in February 2020, talking to reporters from his entrance door as he repeatedly dabbed his face with a handkerchief. “I’m bruised, I’m battered and I’m bloody.” (He had nicked himself shaving, unaccustomed to plain razors whereas in jail.)
The previous governor insisted then that he had damaged no legal guidelines and that he was the sufferer of an overzealous Justice Division in the course of the Obama administration. Federal prosecutors stated Mr. Blagojevich’s conduct — making an attempt to profit from the appointment of a Senate seat, amongst different actions — was so abysmal that it “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”
However he discovered a sympathetic viewers in Mr. Trump. Whereas Mr. Blagojevich was awaiting trial 15 years in the past, he made appeals to Mr. Trump, showing on “The Celebrity Apprentice” when Mr. Trump was the host. And Mr. Blagojevich’s spouse, Patti, spoke on Fox Information whereas her husband was in jail, a transfer that appeared calculated to seize Mr. Trump’s consideration.
Mr. Blagojevich was the fourth governor of Illinois in current a long time to serve time in jail, in a state that has seen its share of corruption charges levied in opposition to elected officers from the Chicago Metropolis Council to the Statehouse in Springfield.
Michael J. Madigan, the previous speaker of the Illinois Home of Representatives, is presently on federal trial in Chicago, dealing with racketeering and bribery charges. A jury has been deliberating for 9 days to this point with out a verdict.
