President Trump pardons ex-Illinois Gov. Blagojevich 5 years after commuting his sentence
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Former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich received a pardon Monday from President Donald Trump.
It comes five years after Trump commuted Blagojevich's federal corruption sentence.
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"Let me tell you from the bottom of my heart how deep my appreciation and gratitude is for President Trump," Blagojevich said during a Monday night press conference.
Assistant to Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino said on X Monday evening that Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon for 68-year-old Blagojevich.
"It's my honor to do it. I watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people that I had to deal with. He wasn't quite as successful, but he had somebody that saw what was going on," Trump said.
The ramifications could be significant.
The pardon represents another remarkable step in Rod Blagojevich 2.0.
"Even though he's been released and is able to be in freedom, you're not really free with a conviction like this hanging over your head, so to have a pardon, I'm just really happy for him and his family," said Lauren Kaeseberg, Blagojevich's former attorney.
And the former governor once again has Trump to thank.
Blagojevich, who has maintained his innocence, arrived home Monday afternoon.
He was perched on his porch, talking to reporters about the pardon that clears his legal record.
"Well, the only thing I'll say is I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment about any rumors that are swirling around, I think, except to say one thing: that I'll always be profoundly grateful to President Trump for everything he's done for me and for my family. It's everlasting gratitude. He's a great guy, and I think the world of him. I think he's going to do great for America," Blagojevich said.
After the pardon, Blagojevich family spokesman Mark Vargas said, "Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his wife Patti will make a statement to the press outside their home this evening at 9:00 pm CST."
Blagojevich proudly identifies himself as a Trumpocrat. Last summer at the Republican National Convention, he was stumping for Trump at a Serbians for Trump event.
Blagojevich also appeared on Trump's reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice."
Trump expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. When Trump fired Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him, "You have a hell of a lot of guts."
"I still consider myself a Democrat, but I'm a Democrat for Trump," he said at the time.
The former governor was convicted in 2011 of a host of corruption charges, most notably for trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat for political favors, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In 2020, during Trump's first presidency, he commuted Blagojevich's sentence, setting him free after eight years in a federal prison outside Denver.
Patti Blagojevich spent nearly two years making public pleas for her husband's release during Trump's first term, appearing often on Fox News Channel, which Trump devotedly watches. She drew parallels between her husband's treatment and Trump's, along with showering Trump with praise.
"It was a prosecution by the same people - Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group," Trump told reporters. He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and later represented former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired from the agency in May 2017. Comey was working in the private sector during the Blagojevich investigation and indictment.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the investigation into ties between between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign, was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.
Former Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said he's disappointed, but not surprised.
"With this administration, whether you're a January 6th defendant, and now you have a Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in the Northern District of Illinois, his convictions were upheld by all the courts. It just really undermines the rule of law," Durkin said. "I was involved. I was known as the ranking member on the impeachment committee on Rod Blagojevich, and I know exactly all the schemes that he had played on Illinois citizens and taxpayers. He should not be rewarded for this and for somehow to rewrite history with Rod Blagojevich is just a shame that this president is doing it."
Blagojevich, who recently visited with the president of Serbia, is reportedly under consideration to be the US Ambassador to that country.
But, if he had any future ambitions to run for office, he is still not completely in the clear because of his impeachment back in 2009, while still governor.
"If his prime goal is to run for office in Illinois, he still can't do it because he was barred from doing it in connection with his impeachment proceedings. A pardon doesn't undo that limitation," ABC7 Chicago legal analyst Gil Soffer said. "He doesn't need a federal pardon to be eligible to serve as ambassador to Serbia, and other practical reasons why it could be helpful. It might be easier for him to pass through the Senate because ambassador positions do require Senate approval."
Blagojevich always could run for federal office, even with the Illinois law that barred him from running for state office.
During a Monday night press conference, Blagojevich declined to comment on that ambassadorship to Serbia, where his family is from, and said he has not thought about running for public office.
Already this term, Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,500 people, all of whom were charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The clemency, announced on Trump's first day back in office, paved the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump's decision to commute Blagojevich's sentence was met with bipartisan criticism in Illinois. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said at the time that Trump "has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time."
A former high-ranking official from Chicago's U.S. Attorney's Office told the I-Team on the condition of anonymity in a statement Monday, "You'd have to be morally unmoored to think a politician as thoroughly corrupt as Blagojevich is deserving of Presidential forgiveness. Aside from Blagojevich's unique criminality in trying to sell his power as governor to appoint a US senator, he went so low as attempting to shake down a local children's hospital. It's one thing to allow a convicted criminal to get on with his life; it's quite another to try to legally erase society's condemnation of his despicable behavior."
Sen. Dick Durbin said on X, "In a state with more than its fair share of public corruption, the Blagojevich chapter still looms as one of the worst. America and Serbia deserve better."
Jim Matsumoto, who served as jury foreman in the first Blagojevich trial, which ended in a hung jury, said Monday Blagojevich broke the law.
"He was guilty the first time around. The second trial proved it. And, regardless of his pardon, he is in my mind still guilty," Matsumoto said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
