By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump says he is considering commuting the sentence of ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The comments came aboard Air Force One on Thursday after he announced on Twitter that he planned to pardon conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza.
Trump told reporters that Blagojevich said something dumb but that “lots of politicians” do and that he thinks the ex-Governor’s sentence is excessive. The Democratic former governor began serving his 14-year prison sentence on corruption convictions in 2012. His scheduled release date is 2024. Blagojevich was also a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality television show in 2010. After Blagojevich was convicted a year later, Trump told Forbes magazine that he “felt bad for him and his family.”
His convictions included trying to extort a children’s hospital for contributions and seeking to trade an appointment to the Senate seat Barack Obama vacated when he was elected president for campaign cash.
Last month the United States Supreme Court for the second time rejected Blagojevich’s appeal. The justices did not comment in letting stand the convictions and 14-year prison term that Blagojevich is serving. The court rejected an earlier appeal in 2016.
Since then, Blagojevich’s wife Patti has appeared on FOX News to press her case that federal prosecutors unfairly railroaded her husband for doing nothing more than trying to raise campaign contributions.
This past Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal editorial page published an op-ed from Blagojevich in which he said, “I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics, Under the legal arguments the prosecutors used to convict me, all fundraising can be viewed as bribery.”
Blagojevich also attacked two favorite Trump targets, when he said “Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government. I learned the hard way what happens when an investigation comes up empty after the government has invested time, resources and manpower. When they can’t prove a crime, they create one.”
Trump has frequently accused the Justice Department and FBI of “a witch hunt” for the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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