Trump says he's considering commuting sentence of imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich
More than six years after Gov. Rod Blagojevich walked into a federal prison, he may be on
the verge of talking his way out.
For weeks, Blagojevich and his team have orchestrated a calculated publicity campaign labeling his
prosecution on sweeping corruption charges unjust and politically motivated.
The show has been targeted to an audience of one: President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Trump indicated for the first time he's been listening.
He told reporters aboard Air Force One he is considering commuting Blagojevich's 14-year
prison sentence, which he described as an overly harsh penalty for what essentially
amounted to a "foolish statement."
In his comments, which were part of a discussion of his plan to pardon conservative pundit
Dinesh D'Souza, Trump mentioned only one of the several corrupt acts for which Blagojevich
was convicted — bartering to get something for himself in return for attempting to "sell"
the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after his election as president.
He also misstated the length of Blagojevich's sentence.
"I'll tell you another one … there's another one that I'm thinking about.
Rod Blagojevich," Trump said, according to a pool report.
"Eighteen (sic) years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other
politician, you know that many other politicians say."
"And if you look at what he said, he said something to the effect like, 'What do I
get?'
… Stupid thing to say.
But he's sort of saying … he's gonna make a U.S. senator, which is a very big deal,"
Trump said.
"If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement.
There was a lot of bravado.
… Plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse.
He shouldn't have been put in jail."
Trump also referred to Blagojevich's stint on his reality show, "Celebrity Apprentice,"
but downplayed any relationship between them, saying, "I don't know him other than that
he was on (the show) for a short period of time."
The president's comments were blasted Thursday by Robert Grant, the former head of the FBI
in Chicago who helped lead the sprawling Operation Board Games investigation that resulted in
dozens of convictions and ultimately led to Blagojevich's downfall.
Grant, who retired from the FBI in 2012, told the Chicago Tribune that any executive clemency
would be "nothing but a mean-spirited slap" at Trump's perceived political enemies,
including special counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating whether Trump's
campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
"It's clear (Trump) has never seen any of the evidence," Grant said in a telephone
interview.
"He took his talking points from (wife) Patti Blagojevich.
It's pure fantasy.
This was flat-out, old-fashioned corruption, pure and simple."
Blagojevich, 61, is not due for release from the minimum-security facility outside Denver
until May 2024.
While the former governor's lawyers have not formally asked the president for a pardon
or commutation, the president has the power to order Blagojevich freed at any point.
Blagojevich's lead attorney, Leonard Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that he was "grateful
that President Trump understands the unfairness" of the situation.
"He has the power to correct this injustice," Goodman said.
Trump's bombshell comments came two days after The Wall Street Journal published an
op-ed piece by Blagojevich decrying his conviction as a politically motivated attack on everyday
campaign fundraising — arguments that have been roundly rejected by a federal appeals
court and ignored by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The piece, published on Memorial Day under the headline "I'm in Prison for Practicing
Politics," began by saying that the "rule of law is under assault in America."
"It is being perverted and abused by the people sworn to enforce and uphold it,"
Blagojevich wrote.
"Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their
power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.
… When they can't prove a crime, they create one."
It was the latest in a media blitz that began in earnest after the U.S. Supreme Court last
month rejected what was his last legal option to overturn his case through the courts.
Patti Blagojevich has gone on national cable news — including Trump's favorite, Fox
News Channel — in not-so-veiled attempts to link her husband's prosecution to former
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a close friend of fired FBI chief James Comey.
Fitzgerald also prosecuted former vice presidential adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whom Trump
pardoned in April.
Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, had no comment
Thursday.
But Randall Samborn, who served as Fitzgerald's spokesman throughout the Blagojevich case,
said the former governor's "PR campaign to revise history" seems to have resonated
with the president — but it doesn't change the facts of his case or his guilt.
Samborn, who left the U.S. attorney's office in 2015, said he was concerned that Blagojevich
and his supporters have seemingly gained traction in their campaign to "portray (Blagojevich)
as the victim."
"When he was sentenced, (Blagojevich) said he had nobody to blame but himself," Samborn
said.
"You can try to revise history all you want, but it doesn't change the facts."
While Trump spoke only of statements made by Blagojevich on undercover wiretaps, much
of the evidence presented at trial came from witnesses who said Blagojevich was shaking
them down for campaign cash in exchange for official acts, Samborn said.
The victims included the then-CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital who said he was pressured
to contribute tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for state funding.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Patti Blagojevich said she and the couple's
two daughters, Amy and Annie, were "very encouraged" by the president's remarks
to reporters on Air Force One.
"He's given us something that has been hard to come by recently … hope," she
said.
"From the beginning, we've eagerly awaited the day when Rod could come back home where
he belongs, and we continue to pray our family will be made whole again soon."
She also asked the media to respect her privacy and said she was granting no interviews — even
though she appeared again on Fox News Thursday evening to praise Trump's compassion.
Blagojevich was still in office when he was arrested at his home early one morning in
December 2008 on charges of misusing his powers as governor in an array of wrongdoing.
He was impeached and removed from office in January 2009.
Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on 17 counts related to the attempted Senate seat sale
and the fundraising shakedowns of the hospital executive and a racetrack owner.
Less than a year earlier, an initial trial had ended with a jury deadlocked on all but
one count of lying to the FBI, forcing the retrial.
In Blagojevich's first appeal in 2015, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago
threw out five counts involving the Senate seat on technical grounds.
But the court tempered the small victory for Blagojevich by calling the evidence against
him overwhelming and making it clear that the original sentence was not out of bounds.
That set up another sentencing hearing in August 2016 that focused largely on Blagojevich's
purported rehabilitation in prison, where he teaches history and counsels inmates and
even served as lead singer in a prison band, The Jailhouse Rockers.
Both of Blagojevich's daughters gave impassioned pleas for mercy, and Blagojevich himself apologized
for his "mistakes" without specifically mentioning the crimes for which he was convicted.
"I recognize it was my actions and my words that led me here," Blagojevich said in a soft
voice from a conference room in the federal prison outside Denver.
"This can be a beginning to make amends for the past."
U.S. District Judge James Zagel, however, resentenced Blagojevich to the same 14-year
prison term.
Blagojevich's former attorney, Lauren Kaeseberg, said Thursday a pardon or commutation has
always been a "viable" last resort.
It would provide some measure of fairness in a process that has treated Blagojevich
harshly, she said.
"Where the justice system failed someone, executive clemency is there as a last resort
to provide justice or fairness or mercy," said Kaeseberg, who was on Blagojevich's
trial team and handled his early appeals.
Kaeseberg said it made "no sense" for taxpayers to have to shell out money to keep
Blagojevich in prison.
"Six years is enough," she said.
"It's time for him to go home to his daughters."
Meanwhile, Grant, the former FBI boss in Chicago, said Blagojevich's lengthy sentence was
a reflection of both the audaciousness of his schemes as well as a state weary of political
corruption.
"This is a state that has faced five corrupt governors," Grant said.
"But Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law.
He has no respect for the Department of Justice or jury verdicts.
… He thinks he's above all that."
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