Trump expected to grant clemency to disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich

[orleans]

Source: chicago sun times

President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to commute the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, setting in motion a process that could free him shortly from a Colorado prison after serving more than seven years behind bars.

Trump’s move would bring to a stunning conclusion one of the most bizarre legal dramas in Illinois history. It’s a tale reaching back more than a decade, to the December 2008 early morning arrest of Blagojevich by the FBI at his Ravenswood Manor home.

From there the state watched as its governor was impeached and convicted in two high-profile trials. But that’s not all. His wife ate a tarantula on national television. And the former governor took his turn on a TV game show that put his incompetence with computers on display for the world to see. He could barely turn one on.


Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2020/2/18/20792391/rod-blagojevich-trump-grants-clemency-disgraced-former-governor

[ancianita]

1. Unlike Republicans, we Democrats in Illinois put our crooks in jail. THEY elect them president.

Rod will never work in a blue state again.

[milestogo]

2. Let's hear it for CORRUPTION!

[rickyhall]

3. Every con should write to dump begging for clemency & overwhelm him.

[Lars39]

4. Sure hope Lamar Alexander is paying attention.

[former9thward]

5. This is long overdue.

President Obama couldn't do anything about this because of his ties to Chicago. This was severe overreach by the prosecutors and a vindictive judge. Blago is a blowhard who was in over his head as governor but that is not a crime. His stupidity was criminalized by the prosecutors. I know of no practicing lawyer in Chicago who thought it was a fair or reasonable sentence.

[greenjar_01]

7. He broke the law, period

But the sentence was too severe.

Your post makes it sound like what he did wasn't criminal. It was. He was a criminal governor, no question. He deserved probably in the range of 6-10 years in prison, which is where we've landed.

[former9thward]

8. No, two to three years max.

He did not do anything IL politicians have routinely done and are still doing. They just seized on his stupidity to prosecute him. He was not a favorite of the Daley machine.

[greenjar_01]

10. He extorted Children's Memorial Hospital for campaign donations

Your position that he didn't do anything criminal but also deserved two to three years in prison is, quite frankly, moronic.

[greenjar_01]

6. Unpopular opinion, but from Chicago

Blago's sentence was too long.

Eight years is appropriate.

Blago lived about six blocks away from me back when he went in.

[Odoreida]

9. Perhaps the day will come when ex-President Trump needs a sentence commuted by President Blago.

[Wabbajack_]

11. I hate to agree with something trump does but....

Blago (and I admit I have a soft spot for the guy, voted for him) got way too harsh a sentence, because he embarrassed President Obama. Let him go home to his kids.

[murielm99]

22. He got a harsh sentence

because that is what Madigan wanted. No one crosses Madigan.

[iluvtennis]

12. He's setting the table for the upcoming pardon of Roger Stone. He could care less about Blagojevich

[SeattleVet]

13. I think you're right.

It fits right in with his usual M.O. - do something outrageous, wait for the public and media to react and get it into the news cycle, then have a 'hold my beer and watch this' followup with something way worse that won't get nearly as much coverage as it would have gotten had he done it first.

[former9thward]

14. He was talking about commuting Blago's sentence before Stone was ever charged.

He may pardon Stone but this has nothing to do with it.

[denem]

15. He will pardon Stone.

Like pulling out of Syria, he will get the greatest thrill from sidelining his advisers.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Yep, that's why he's all 'I haven't considered it'.

Setting the stage for possible later testimony.

Bull Fucking Shit he hasn't 'considered it'.

[mahina]

16. Smokescreen for his plans

[Polybius]

17. I heard rumors twice before

Hope it's true this time. He doesn't deserve the same sentence that a murderer gets. Republicans get away with what he did anyway.

[LittleGirl]

18. The acquittal unleashed

a monster. Thanks Senators

for nothing

[amcgrath]

20. This is not a little thing.

Clemency was once a tool offered in situations where (often unreasonably harsh) sentences had been handed out, often in case where new laws meant the person would not have been tied or convicted. It was used for cases deemed to be unfair. It was typically something given to civil rights cases and similar.

Although it was granted to people like Scooter Libby in the past, Trumo has turned it into a simple gesture of doing favours for friends or people whose crimes he admires.

He has also taken the concept of pardons to a new level. Formerly a pardon required extenuating circumstances. It was offered after a trial, usually after some period of incarceration and the conditions were that as a pardon, a crime had been committed and the accused accepted and admitted that they had done that crime.

Then we see Arpaio being granted an immediate pardon, before going back to fight his innocence. And then we see Trump completely circumventing the law and pardoning war criminals who have not even been to trial.

These are not trivial events. They display a complete disregard for law, both civilian and military and are based purely on personal whim. They are two more pillars of a legal system which Trump, unchallenged, has kicked away. It is a declaration that not only is he above the law. But that those he chooses are above the law too.

When a leader declares himself the new law of the land, it is a dictatorship. And however small and insignificant these clemencies and pardons may appear, they are a fundamental declaration that he is the law. And that he is no more than a dictator.

[iluvtennis]

23. Exactly. nt

[Totally Tunsie]

21. Time to buy stock in Clairol.

First thing Blago will do is dye his tresses again.

Then, if Manafort ever gets pardoned, the stock will go through the roof.

You heard it here first!

?w=770&quality=85&strip=all&h=759

[Polybius]

25. Wow, I always thought his hair might be fake

Seeing it all grey in jail, that confirms it's real. What a head of hair.

[Calista241]

24. The real question is:

Who has better hair, Blago or Trump?

[Polybius]

28. Well, Blago's is real

[Blue_Tires]

26. If Obama pulled this shit he would have been lynched on the spot

and motherfuck the emoprog Punditsphere (Greenwald and Sirota I'm looking at you) dusting off their 20-year-old Marc Rich hot takes as if that excuses Trump...

[Thomas Hurt]

27. King Donnie the Venal may well hire Blago as his latest servile toady.