President Donald Trump pardoned former Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich on Monday, who had been convicted of corruption for attempting to sell the vacant U.S. Senate seat of former President Barack Obama.
Rod Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 after prosecutors said he tried to sell Obama’s Senate seat after he won the 2008 presidential election.
Speaking at the White House, where he signed the pardon, President Trump stated that Rod Blagojevich had experienced a “terrible injustice.”
During his first term, President Trump had commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence.
Blagojevich had appeared on Trump’s television show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” in 2010 while awaiting trial, reports VOA.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 rejected Blagojevich’s appeal to further reduce his sentence, which was expected to end in 2026.
Rod Blagojevich has tried to portray himself as a victim of an overzealous and politically motivated prosecution by federal law enforcement, an accusation that seemed to resonate with President Trump.
