Posted on 02/18/2020 11:22:16 AM PST by Enlightened1
President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Several Trump administration aides had claimed to ABC that the president is planning to grant the former governor clemency. Trump had previously hinted he was looking into commuting the 14-year sentence, which was originally handed down after Blagojevich was convicted of trying to sell the Senate seat of then-president elect Barack Obama in 2008, according to NBC Chicago.
“Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. he served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
Unlike a full pardon, a clemency grant does not expunge Blagojevich’s conviction from the record. Instead, it will allow him to leave prison immediately rather than serve the rest of his sentence, of which he has already served seven years.
The news came hours after Trump granted a full pardon to former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo.
Blagojevich is one of four of the last 11 Illinois governors to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to jail.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
I hope we see Flynn and Stone pardoned too.
Good move....
Why is the President pardoning/commuting corrupt Democrats? is he planning some high profile pardons for Stone, Flynn?
Tuns out one of the jury members in the Stone case was a lawyer that did not disclose this information.
“Judge Jackson now has a request for a new trial based on the unambiguous & self outed bias of the foreperson of the jury, whose also a lawyer, by the way. ‘Madam foreperson, you’re a lawyer, you have a duty, an affirmative obligation, to reveal to us when we selected you the......existence of these tweets in which you were so harshly negative about the President & the people who support him. Don’t you think we wanted to know that before we put you on this jury.’ Pretty obvious he should (get a new trial). I think almost any judge in the Country..........would order a new trial, I’m not so sure about Judge Jackson, I don’t know.”
-
@Judgenap
(Andrew Napolitano)
@foxandfriends
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1229790563668504576
That is what I am thinking.
Nice record, reminds me of the NFL vs. NBA list of all the crimes and at the end they say it's not the NBA or NFL, it's Congress.
Black female democrat...hmmmm
At least 4 of our corrupt Governors HAVE been prosecuted, convicted and put in prison.
Can Virgina say the same? Other states?
“Why is the President pardoning/commuting corrupt Democrats? is he planning some high profile pardons for Stone, Flynn”?
Yes. Smart move.
Blagojevich has served almost eight years in prison to date.
Lots of the faux outrage is from the dirty Illinois politicians who played footsie with him until he was arrested.
I’ve always believed that all officials in government from FBI director, to police, to DAs to judges, to elected Senators etc should be held to the highest level of sentence and punishment for corruption etc in their job, and much more than plain old average citizens. But that was before that it was proven that our DOJ and the media are corrupt and thrive on double standards. There is no longer real justice.
Ain't that the truth.
“Why is the President pardoning/commuting corrupt Democrats?
I hope he doesn’t think our domestic enemies will be pleased.
Illinois is a blue state.
Trump doesn’t have to win the democrats over. He just has to get them to stay home and not vote against him.
Blago is typical Illinois donkey slime, and thoroughly deserved to serve out his full sentence, but I don’t hold his commutation against Trump - I think it’s a mistake, but if so, not that consequential of one. And presumably Trump and his people know more about this situation than me.
But it would be nice to have a full-service clink expressly for the entire Democrat hierarchy in this God-forsaken state - as bad as Blago was (and probably is), he’s nowhere near the worst of the bunch.
8 years is long enough for white collar corruption......demonrats will be forced to condemn the pardon...
Barack Obama cannot be pleased with this news since his presidential transition team was actively negotiating with Blagojevich to appoint Valerie Jarrett to the US Senate seat.
The lawyer who conducted the internal review of the Obama team’s actions was Gregory B. Craig. He effectively whitewashed the entire affair. Years later, Craig was indicted as well in relation to crooked dealing in the Ukraine, but he beat the rap as the statute of limitations had run on some of his crimes.
It's a quid pro quo. In exchange for the reduction, Blagojevich will confirm that Barry the Usurper took some of the graft money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.