Blagojevich asks Obama for early release

I think his sentence is too long. I also think 4 years is too short. He is one of the most corrupt of a long line of Illinois pols. Plus he doesn't. Think he did anything wrong.<<<<

My dad who lives in the Chicago area also believes his sentence is too long, but IMO that sort of crime ought to have an extremely high deterrent in terms of a penalty.  I would almost be in favor of flaying for such explicit compromises of the public trust which occur at that level.  Aside from a breach of the public trust, it's not simply a singular incident; but one which would've had a rippling effect generated by an extremely influential public position; potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of decisions and perhaps millions of people over the course of time.  No, his facial skin (and hairdoo) should be nailed to the door of the Senate chambers.

You too as well puddles :-)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-illinois-govern...

President Donald Trump said Thursday he was considering commuting the 14-year sentence of imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Trump’s comments came two days after the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by Blagojevich decrying his conviction as politically motivated and an attack on everyday campaign fundraising that all office holders must engage in.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, said she and the couple’s two daughters, Amy and Annie, were “very encouraged” by the president’s remarks to reporters on Air Force One.

“He’s given us something that has been hard to come by recently…hope,” she said. “From the beginning, we’ve eagerly awaited the day when Rod could come back home where he belongs, and we continue to pray our family will be made whole again soon.”

Trump brought up Blagojevich as he discussed his decision to pardon conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza and mentioned the former governor’s appearance on his reality TV show.

“I’ll tell you another one … there’s another one that I’m thinking about. Rod Blagojevich,” Trump said, according to a pool report. “18 years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other politician, you know that many other politicians say.”

Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years.

“And If you look at what he said, he said something to the effect like what do I get? … Stupid thing to say. But he’s sort of saying .. he’s gonna make a U.S. senator which is a very big deal,” Trump said. “And it was foolish … 18 years now. I don’t know him other than that he was on The Apprentice for a short period of time.”

“Because what he did does not justify 18 years in a jail. If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement. There was a lot of bravado … Plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse,” he said. “And it doesn’t, he shouldn’t have been put in jail.”

Blagojevich’s lawyers have not formally asked the president for a pardon or commutation, but there has been a sustained effort to bring the case to Trump’s attention since the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected what was his last legal option to overturn his case through the courts.

Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, has gone on national cable news – including Trump’s favorite Fox News Channel – several times in not-so-veiled attempts to link her husband’s prosecution to former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a close friend of fired FBI chief James Comey.

Fitzgerald also prosecuted former vice presidential adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whom Trump pardoned in April.

"My husband is probably the only person in the entire history of the United States who is serving any kind of sentence for simply asking for campaign contributions," Patti Blagojevich told Fox News host Tucker Carlson during an interview hours after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid.

The disgraced governor was a contestant on Trump's program, "The Celebrity Apprentice," in 2010 as he faced corruption charges including allegations that he tried to sell off President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

Earlier Thursday, Patti Blagojevich tweeted that she was scheduled to be interviewed by a different Fox host on Thursday evening.

Blagojevich's former attorney, Lauren Kaeseberg, said a pardon or commutation has always been a "viable” last resort and would provide some measure of fairness in a process that has treated him harshly.

“Where the justice system failed someone, executive clemency is there as a last resort to provide justice or fairness or mercy,” said Kaeseberg, who was on Blagojevich’s trial team and handled his early appeals.

Kaeseberg said it made “no sense” for taxpayers to have to shell out money to keep Blagojevich in prison.

"Six years is enough," she said. "It's time for him to go home to his daughters."

Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, had no comment Thursday.

Blagojevich was still in office when he was arrested at his home early one morning in December 2008 on charges of misusing his powers as governor in an array of wrongdoing. Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on 17 counts related to the attempted Senate seat sale and fundraising shakedowns of a hospital executive and a racetrack owner. Less than a year earlier, an initial trial ended with a jury deadlocked on all but one count of lying to the FBI, forcing the retrial.

In Blagojevich's first appeal in 2015, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago threw out five counts involving the Senate seat on technical grounds. But the court tempered the small victory for Blagojevich by calling the evidence against him overwhelming and making it clear that the original sentence was not out of bounds.

That set up another sentencing hearing in August 2016 that focused largely on Blagojevich's purported rehabilitation in prison, where he teaches history and counsels inmates and even served as lead singer in a prison band, The Jailhouse Rockers. Both of Blagojevich's daughters gave impassioned pleas for mercy, and Blagojevich himself apologized for his "mistakes" without specifically mentioning the crimes for which he was convicted.

"I recognize it was my actions and my words that led me here," Blagojevich said in a soft voice from a conference room in the federal prison outside Denver. "This can be a beginning to make amends for the past."

However, U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who imposed the original sentence, resentenced Blagojevich to the same 14-year prison term.

Blagojevich’s op-ed piece published on Memorial Day in the Wall Street Journal – under the headline “I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics” — began by saying the “rule of law is under assault in America.”

“It is being perverted and abused by the people sworn to enforce and uphold it,” Blagojevich wrote. “Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government … When they can’t prove a crime, they create one.”

A fact-check response by the Better Government Association on Tuesday gave the article a “Pants on Fire” rating, its lowest on a scale of credibility.

up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLM5zb3iVV8

I don't even know where to begin.

You're just as right now as you were then!

Most of the interview here (11 minutes).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLM5zb3iVV8 <<<

^ actually just saw that interview before deciding to resurrect thread.

It's amazing to watch Blago tenaciously stick to his narrative with a straight face without flinching; at the same time, realize how the current environment is far more well suited to him being able to get away with his lies appearing "normal". 

 ...said the pot to the kettle <<<

If a person is lynched by a mob, is the only guilty individual the one who actually placed the rope around the victim's neck?

Deep archival work FOM.  Nicely done.  

My sister lives in Chicago and says that dude is the scum of the earth.  The whole thing is so creepy and weird<<<

Memory works with some things, but not others.   Don't ask me what I ate for lunch two days ago.

My family is from / lives there too and there's no love for Blago with them by any of them, but my dad (who's a lawyer) STILL maintains his sentence was too long ... which I find weird when he totally agrees that Blago is really bad news and the pardon was uncalled for.   I think in the end, most people in our country don't appreciate the full gravity of "crimes against the Republic" ... vs. a nation that's been plagued with civil war or unrest.