Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Rod Blagojevich is released from prison

When our former governor was impeached and removed from office I was all over this back then. So I hope you'll indulge this blast from the past.

As a result of his activities while governor which helped get him impeached he was sent to federal prison were he served close to 8 years until President Donald Trump granted Blagojevich a commutation of his federal sentence.
After more than one false alarm raised and dashed the hopes of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, President Donald Trump finally answered his pleas and commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year prison term Tuesday, springing the Chicago Democrat from prison more than four years early and writing a stunning new chapter to one of the state’s most notorious corruption cases.

The federal Bureau of Prisons released a statement after 7 p.m. saying that Blagojevich “is no longer in the custody” of the agency and was released from a prison in Colorado.

The controversial move came more than a year after Trump first revealed he was considering ending Blagojevich’s time behind bars, saying he believed Illinois’ 40th governor had been treated unfairly.

“Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Trump said in Maryland on Tuesday. "He served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person — don’t know him.”
As an aside, it was mentioned by many out there that after his removal from office Blagojevich was a participant on Celebrity Apprentice and certainly that occurred before he served his sentence for corruption in federal prison.

I wonder if his time in prison caused him to think about what got him there. I wonder if he plans a political comeback although in early 2009 the state Senate also voted to bar the former governor from running for any office in Illinois. I don't know if that includes running for a federal office such as a member of the US House of Representatives where he was a former member.

Either way I believe this AP video was circulated among Illinois bloggers when he was arrested by the FBI years ago. Blagojevich was still governor and was going to work as usual and we get a glimpse of his two young daughters. Surely this whole episode took its toll on his daughters and his wife Patti. [VIDEO]

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