Blagojevich Says He's In Prison For 'Practicing Politics'

JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO — Six years into a 14-year stint at a federal prison, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is fresh off a failed bid to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal — his last ditch to shorten a sentence he's repeatedly criticized as too harsh for his crimes. Now, the disgraced Democrat is the author of an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, titled, "I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics."

The column, which ran Memorial Day, criticizes prosecutors in his trial on corruption charges as "overzealous."

His sentiments in the column are similar to those he expressed in his first prison interviews last September. The former governor, who is incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood near Littleton, Colorado, bemoaned his sentence in an interview with NBC-5, pointing out he's doing more time than notorious gangster Al Capone.

Blagojevich's First Prison Interview: 5 Things You Need To Know

As with his most recent failed appeal, Blagojevich insists he never broke campaign finance laws as previously outlined by the Supreme Court.

"Fundraising is a routine and necessary part of America’s political system," he says in the op-ed, claiming that under the arguments prosecutors used to convict him, all fundraising can be viewed as bribery. "Let me be clear: I never accepted gifts, vacations, clothes, jewelry or flights on fancy jets in exchange for my political influence," he wrote. "Whenever I went to a Chicago Cubs game, I paid for my own tickets. Yet here I am in my sixth year of a 14-year prison sentence for the routine practice of attempting to raise campaign funds while governor."

Read Blagojevich's full Wall Street Journal op-ed here.

In 2015, a judge tossed out five of the 18 counts of public corruption against the former governor. A year later, prosecutors asked that he be re-sentenced. Blagojevich wanted a new sentence of five years, but a judge instead gave him the same sentence: 14 years. In 2017, an appeals court also upheld the 14-year sentence, and more recently, the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File