CHICAGO (CBS) — President Trump officially issued a pardon to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Monday, a White House official confirmed to CBS News. The development was first reported by Axios.
“It’s my honor to do it. I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people — some of the same people that I had to deal with. He wasn’t quite as successful, but he had somebody that saw what was going on. I didn’t know him, other than I believe he was on ‘The Apprentice’ for a little while,” said President Trump. “He was just a very nice person. He had a fantastic wife. She fought like hell to get him out. He was given a sentence of like 18 years [sic], and it was a terrible injustice. They just were after him. They go after a lot of people.”
Legally, a pardon is official forgiveness — removing most of the legal consequences of the criminal conviction.
“Well I mean, the only thing I’ll say is that I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment about any rumors that are swirling around, I think except to say one thing — that I’ll always be profoundly grateful to President Trump for everything he’s done for me and for my family,” Blagojevich told WBBM Newsradio on Monday before the pardon was issued.
Blagojevich was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison in December 2011 on 18 corruption charges, including attempting to sell Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat after Obama won the White House in 2008. Blagojevich only served nearly eight years before being commuted in February 2020 during Mr. Trump’s first presidency.
Upon his release from prison, he told CBS Chicago that he believed he “was sent to prison for practicing politics,” but also admitted to having made “mistakes.”
Months after his release, he filed a federal lawsuit claiming his removal from office by the Illinois Senate following his 2009 impeachment trial was unconstitutional and sought the ability to run for state or local elected office in Illinois.
In 2024, a judge issued a ruling in Blagojevich’s filed lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban on him running for state or local office. The judge’s ruling utilized allusions to Dr. Seuss to underline their message.
“Read generally Dr. Seuss, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! (1972) (‘The time has come. The time has come. The time is now. Just Go. Go. GO! I don’t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now!’),” U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger wrote.
Blagojevich and Mr. Trump have worked together in the past. He appeared in Season 3 of the reality competition show “Celebrity Apprentice,” in which he was “fired” by Mr. Trump during the season’s run.
In fact, Blagojevich mentioned Mr. Trump — then not yet president or a presidential candidate — in the hours before reporting to prison in 2012.
“I got fired by Donald Trump,” Blagojevich said at the time. “This thing I’ve got to do now is worse.”
Could Blagojevich be named ambassador to Serbia?
The news of the pardon sets in motion a possible political revival. While Blagojevich remains barred from holding elected office in Illinois after his impeachment from office, there has been word lately he could be named ambassador to Serbia in the new Trump White House.
In 1999, Blagojevich, who has Serbian roots, joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson as Jackson helped broker the release of three American prisoners in Serbia. Blagojevich was a U.S. congressman at the time.
Now, 26 years and a political lifetime later, speculation has been that Blagojevich may be dispatched back to the region of his ancestors by the very man who released him from prison early — as the Rod Blagojevich story takes another unexpected turn.
When asked in the Oval Office whether he was considering Blagojevich for ambassador to Serbia, President Trump said: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”
The political land mines Blagojevich faced resemble much of Trump’s political career. Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich, represented former FBI Director James Comey, whom President Trump fired from the agency in 2017.
Comey was working in the private sector during the Blagojevich investigation and indictment.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the investigation into ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.
What the pardon means for Blagojevich’s electability moving forward remained unclear late Monday.