Trump Grants Pardon to Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich
President Donald Trump pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of corruption in 2011 and served eight years in prison. Blagojevich expressed gratitude to Trump for the pardon.
President Donald Trump on Monday granted a full and unconditional pardon to Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois who was convicted on multiple charges of corruption in 2011, including trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.
Blagojevich had served eight years in prison before Trump, in his first term as president, commuted his sentence.
"He was set up by a lot of bad people," Trump said while signing the pardon on Monday.
"It was a sort of a terrible injustice. ... He's just a very fine person," he added.
Blagojevich thanked Trump outside his home in Chicago, telling reporters, "I'll always be profoundly grateful to President Trump for everything he's done for me and my family."
The Democratic governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2011 on 18 felony counts of corruption during his time in office. The list of charges against him was substantial.
FBI wiretaps caught him discussing trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Obama in 2008. "I've got this thing, and it's ... golden. And uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for ... nothing," said Blagojevich, who as governor had the right to appoint Obama's successor. He sought $1.5 million in campaign contributions or other personal benefits in return, the FBI said.
He was also sentenced for pressuring the chief executive of a children's hospital for $25,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for increasing pediatric reimbursement rates; for delaying the signing of a bill benefiting the Illinois horse racing industry in an attempt to secure $100,000 in campaign contributions; and for lying to the FBI.
"Blagojevich betrayed the trust and faith that Illinois voters placed in him, feeding great public frustration, cynicism and disengagement among citizens," Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said at the time of his sentencing. Some of the convictions were later dismissed by a U.S. appeals court.
In 2010, before his conviction but after his indictment, Blagojevich appeared on Trump's NBC reality show, "The Celebrity Apprentice." At the time, Trump commended him for having "a lot of guts" to participate.
On Monday, Trump was asked whether he was considering appointing Blagojevich as the ambassador to Serbia. "No, but I would," Trump said. "He's now cleaner than anybody in this room."
