{"id":342,"date":"2025-02-10T22:53:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T22:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/10\/trump-expected-to-pardon-former-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevich-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T22:53:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T22:53:49","slug":"trump-expected-to-pardon-former-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevich-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/10\/trump-expected-to-pardon-former-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevich-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump expected to pardon former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump on Monday issued a full pardon to former Illinois Gov.\u00a0Rod Blagojevich.<\/p>\n

Blagojevich, 68, who was a Democrat while in office had served eight years in prison on charges stemming from his effort to sell Barack Obama\u2019s Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my pleasure,” Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office, adding, \u201cI think he\u2019s a very fine person this should they\u2019ve happened to him.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump commuted<\/a> Blagojevich\u2019s 14-year sentence in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Axios first reported<\/a> on Trump’s plans to pardon Blagojevich.<\/p>\n

Blagojevich was convicted in 2009 of lying to an FBI agent. Jurors\u00a0deadlocked<\/a>\u00a0on other counts. At his 2011 retrial, he was found guilty on all counts, after government recordings revealed his attempts to sell Obama’s seat. He was also convicted of shaking down a children\u2019s hospital executive for campaign contributions and holding up a bill involving the horse-racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In between the trials, he was a contestant on Trump\u2019s reality TV show \u201cThe Celebrity Apprentice\u201d in 2010.<\/p>\n

Blagojevich was impeached<\/a>\u00a0and expelled from office in January 2009 after he refused to resign after his arrest the previous year on a litany of corruption charges. <\/p>\n

Blagojevich\u2019s longtime lawyer Shelly Sorosky on Monday called the possibility of a pardon something that’s been \u201con the radar\u201d for some time. Sorosky went on to describe Blagojevich and Trump having a \u201cgood, friendly relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBC News was unable to contact Blagojevich for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

For years, Blagojevich’s name was synonymous with corruption in Illinois, after FBI recordings revealed his musings about trading government actions for personal benefit. <\/p>\n

In 2019, Illinois’ Republican Congressional delegation sent Trump a letter<\/a> asking him not to commute the former governor’s sentence, saying it sent a wrong message. Trump, in his first term, commuted his term anyway. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we take a strong stand against pay-to-play politics, especially in Illinois where four of our last eight Governors have gone to federal prison for public corruption,” they wrote. “Commuting the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, who has a clear and documented record of egregious corruption, sets a dangerous precedent and goes against the trust voters place in elected officials.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
<\/picture><\/div>\n

Gabe Gutierrez<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gabe Gutierrez is a senior White House correspondent for NBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/span>Zo\u00eb Richards<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Zo\u00eb Richards is a politics reporter for NBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n

Natasha Korecki<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Monday issued a full pardon to former Illinois Gov.\u00a0Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich, 68, who was a Democrat while in office had served eight years in prison on charges stemming from his effort to sell Barack Obama\u2019s Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election. \u201cIt\u2019s my pleasure,” Trump said during remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}