Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 17, 2024, at Trump’s 2024 Serb Tournament The participants were talked to.
Armando L. Sanchez | Chicago Tribune | Getty Images
President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Monday.
Blagojevich, 68, was a Democrat during his tenure and was sentenced to eight years for his efforts to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he won the 2008 presidential election. Incarceration.
“It’s my honor,” Trump said in his Oval Office speech, adding: “I think he’s a really good person if they happen to him.” ”
trump card Commuting Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2020.
axis Report first About Trump’s plan to pardon Blagojevic.
Blagojevich was convicted in 2009 for lying to an FBI agent. Jury deadlock On other counts. In a 2011 retrial, he felt implicated in all charges after the government recording revealed his attempt to sell Obama’s seat. He was also convicted of strikes on children’s hospital executives for campaign donations and proposed a bill involving the horse racing industry in exchange for campaign donations.
Between the trials, he was a contestant on the 2010 Trump reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice”.
Blagojevich Being impeached each He refused to resign after being arrested on suspicion of corruption charges in January 2009 and was fired in January 2009.
On Monday, Blagojevich’s long-time lawyer Shelly Sorosky said the possibility of pardoning something had been “radar” for some time. Sorosky went on to describe Blagojevich and Trump having a “good, friendly relationship”.
NBC News was unable to contact Blagojevich for comment on Monday.
For years, Blagojevic’s name was synonymous with corruption in Illinois, as the FBI recording revealed his meditation on government actions for personal gain.
2019, Republican Congressional Delegation in Illinois A letter to Trump He was asked not to commute to the former governor’s sentence, saying it sent a wrong message. Trump was in office in his first term.
“It is important that we must strongly oppose paid politics, especially in Illinois, where four of our past eight governors have gone to federal prisons for public corruption,” they wrote. “Rod Brah who commutes to and from work Rod Blagojevich’s verdict was clear and recorded in a huge corruption record, a dangerous precedent and confronted the trust voters of elected officials.”
