Posted on 02/18/2020 12:57:11 PM PST by simpson96
WASHINGTON — President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain, and pardoned the financier Michael R. Milken and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, the president announced on Tuesday.
“Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Mr. Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One for a four-day trip to the west coast where he is scheduled to hold three campaign rallies. “He served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him.”
Mr. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, was convicted of tax fraud and lying to the government. And he said he had also pardoned Mr. Milken, the investment banker who was known in the 1980s as the “junk bond king” and who has fought for decades to reverse his conviction for securities fraud.
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Mr. Trump commuted the former governor’s sentence on Tuesday after saying for years that he was considering intervening in Mr. Blagojevich’s case. By commuting the sentence, the president would free Mr. Blagojevich from prison without wiping out the conviction. Republicans have advised the president against it, arguing that Mr. Blagojevich’s crime epitomizes the corruption that Mr. Trump had said he wanted to tackle as president.
The president’s decision came the same day that he pardoned or commuted the sentences of eight others including Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers who pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt and eventually surrendered control of his team.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
NYT - “He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him”
Trump on TV - “He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him very well.”
Blago was not the only person involved in selling Obama’s senate seat. He was the only one sent to prison for the shenanigans of that time.
5 years is long enough, he didn’t kill anyone.
Indeed he was. As for Rod, I like POTUS giving the finger to that jerk, Comey. Comey’s prosecution of Scooter Libby and Martha Stewart was what was really the criminal act(s).
<ilen ws railroaded. The Fatico hearings after he was convicted proved that.
So - did he rake in billions by breaking securities laws or not?
Comey wasn’t in government when Blago was investigated, arrested or prosecuted. He had zero to do with that.
He raked in billions by being a brilliant financier. The only securities law he was guilty of violating was lying about ownership of shares by “parking” stock in other accounts. That is illegal, but usually would be met with fines and sanctions, not being imprisoned and barred for life from the industry. His real crime was making a third tier bank into the biggest house on Wall Street.
Yes, the Libby prosecution was really really bad. They knew he was innocent.
I wonder if any of these people will wind up on a Trump campaign commercial like the one run during the Super Bowl?
I agree - I can’t stand him but he was railroaded like Flynn and Stone
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