Trump 'thinking very seriously' about commuting prison sentence for Rod Blagojevich
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he may commute the prison sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor convicted of federal corruption charges that included efforts to sell Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat.
"Many people have asked that I study the possibility of commuting his sentence in that it was a very severe one," Trump posted Thursday on Twitter. "White House staff is continuing the review of this matter."
The president's tweet came a day after he noted that Blagojevich was a guest on his television program "The Apprentice." Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Wednesday that, "I think he was treated very, very unfairly, just as others were."
Blagojevich, who entered federal prison in 2012, is in the middle of a 14-year sentence after being convicted on federal charges of using his powers as governor to extract campaign money and other political favors.
Rod Blagojevich, the former Governor of Illinois, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He has served 7 years. Many people have asked that I study the possibility of commuting his sentence in that it was a very severe one. White House staff is continuing the review of this matter.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2019
In 2015, a federal appeals court threw out some of the charges related to Blagojevich's attempts to sell an appointment to the Senate job that Obama vacated after he won the 2008 presidential election. The appeals court left the other charges intact.
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Trump suggested he might commute Blagojevich's sentence in May 2018. A month later, Blagojevich filed paperwork with the Justice Department formally requesting a commutation.
"I am thinking very seriously about commuting his sentence so that he can go home to his family after seven years," Trump said Wednesday. "I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. I thought from Day One – I said, 'Boy, that is really tough stuff.' "
In deriding the length of Blagojevich's sentence, Trump criticized "the gang" around FBI Director James Comey and "all those sleazebags." Comey, fired by Trump in 2017 during the investigation of Russian election interference, did not take over the FBI until 2013, the year after Blagojevich went to prison.
After a trip to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, to meet with survivors of last weekend's mass shootings, Trump cast the prospective commutation of Blagojevich as a bipartisan gesture.
"A man who is a Democrat, not a Republican," Trump said, "who I don’t know very well, but he was on 'The Apprentice' for a couple of weeks."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says he may commute Rod Blagojevich's prison sentence
