Politics & Government
Trump 'Very Seriously' Considering Commuting Blagojevich Sentence
The imprisoned former governor was "treated unbelievably unfairly" by "the Comey Gang and all these sleazebags," the president said.
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump suggested he is preparing to commute the sentence of imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, predicting the move would be "very impactful" and "a pretty big story."
Trump said the disgraced Democrat was treated "unbelievably unfairly" by "the Comey gang" and "all these sleazebags," according to a pool report of his comments. Trump make the remarks Wednesday while speaking to reporters on Air Force One after visiting the sites of recent mass shootings in Ohio and Texas.
"He’s been in jail for seven years, over a phone call where nothing happens," Trump said, referring to FBI wiretaps introduced at Blagojevich's federal corruption trial. "He shouldn’t have said what he said, but it was braggadocio, you would say. I would think that there have been many politicians — I’m not one of them, by the way —that have said a lot worse over telephones."
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The president said he had sympathy for Blagojevich's wife and frequent Fox News Channel guest Patti, who he described as "fantastic" and "one hell of a woman." Patti Blagojevich previously spoke out in support of Trump amid the Mueller investigation.
The 62-year-old former Illinois governor and state representative appeared on Trump's television show "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2010. Blagojevich was convicted of federal corruption charges the next year and began serving a 14-year sentence in Colorado in 2012.
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The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out five of the 17 counts against him in 2016 but kept the 14-year sentence in place. Later that year, Blagojevich petitioned former President Barack Obama — whose U.S. Senate seat he was caught on tape attempting to profit from — to commute his sentence.
In a piece published last year in the Wall Street Journal, Blagojevich said he was in prison for the "routine practice of attempting to raise campaign funds while governor."
The president said without evidence that drug dealers who have killed dozens of people are sentenced to less than a month while Blagojevich has been imprisoned for seven years.
"Not a friend of mine. He’s a Democrat, not a Republican. It’s Illinois," Trump said. "I think he was treated very, very unfairly, just as others were."
Trump has previously criticized Blagojevich's sentence. Last May, the president said he was "seriously thinking about" the commutation. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, has been a champion of Blagojevich's release, suggesting it would appeal to Democrats, the New York Times reported, while other aides warned Trump it would be "politically unwise."
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