Blagojevich seeks presidential commutation of prison term

Associated Press ^ | December 23, 2016 | Staff

[Brad from Tennessee]

CHICAGO (AP) -- Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is seeking a presidential commutation of his 14-year sentence on a corruption conviction.

U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Dena Iverson said Friday the department has received a petition for commutation from Blagojevich. She declined to comment further.

The Chicago Democrat was sentenced in 2011 following his conviction for trying to exchange an appointment to President Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash.

An appeals court last year struck down five of his 18 convictions and ordered a new sentencing, but a judge this year upheld the 14-year term.

This week Blagojevich's lawyers asked a U.S. appeals court to nullify the prison term and order another sentencing hearing, arguing he's been a model prisoner. . .

[Ciaphas Cain]

Perhaps we should start a drinking game for all the pardons and commutations we can expect between now and January 20th.

[Leep]

If only Blago would have been busted with 50,or more, grams of coke on him.. obama would have pardoned him in a heart beat.

[Paladin2]

There are those who believe that crook Kwame Kilpatrick needs to be pardoned too.

[Paladin2]

Lock H->! up too.

[ErikJohnsky]

Blago should do a reverse Michael Jackson; go from white to black. Then Obama will pardon him, if not give him the Medal of Freedom before 1/20 too!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

He was sent up the river for merely conspiring while Hitlery actually did over and over and over and over and over. I really hope Trump doesn’t wuss out and let her off the hook, she was behind all that recount crap and getting the electors to not vote for Trump. If he instructs the justice dept. to let her go she is never going to stop trying to destroy him. She is a psychotic criminal who has been involved in every crime imaginable and she needs to be locked away, get her the hell out of society before she does anymore damage.

[ronnie raygun]

I say special commission to investigate clinton, obama and soros

[KyCats]

It depends on if Obama got his cut when Blago pulled the scam. If he didn’t, 14 years baby!

[raccoonradio]

Corrupt Chicago Democrats? Sure sounds like Obama and the woman who wanted to succeed her.The Chicago Way!

[raccoonradio]

...or succeed him, or...

[flaglady47]

I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I think Blago got a bad rap. He never ended up selling any position in exchange for anything. Just a lot of big talk. The Dem Party elders were out to get him, and threw him to the sharks. I feel sorry for him. Has young kids. Didn’t deserve this long sentence just for the sin of being flamboyant by nature. The long knives were out for Blago. Surprisingly, if you will remember, he was on Trump’s The Apprentice, and did well on it.

[ETL]

From the Chicago Tribune, 2010...

“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,” Blagojevich said in a conversation secretly recorded by government agents. “I’m not just giving it up for (expletive) nothing.”

Blagojevich was talking to his onetime deputy governor, Doug Scofield, who had been part of his two campaigns for the state’s top office. Scofield found himself advising his former boss just as Obama was cruising toward winning the presidential election, and Blagojevich had a decision to make.

“The thing he’s referring to is his ability to appoint a senator,” Scofield testified moments after a wiretap of that call was played at Blagojevich’s corruption trial. “It’s valuable to him and he’s not giving that thing of value up for nothing or in exchange for nothing,” Scofield said.

The “golden” line has served as a virtual trademark for the government’s case ever since it was first publicized in a court document on the day of Blagojevich’s December 2008 arrest. But it was almost a month into the trial before the recording was played for jurors, as prosecutors continued to press the point that Blagojevich wasn’t interested in using his Senate pick for the good of the people of Illinois. Rather, prosecutors claim, he saw his power to fill the Senate vacancy as leverage to help himself as his political options were closing and a federal probe was swirling around him.

During the phone call, Blagojevich told Scofield that he would take an appointment from Obama as secretary of Health and Human Services “in a second,” and if that didn’t materialize, he could “(expletive) parachute me there,” meaning appoint himself to the Senate.

Scofield testified he had left the new Blagojevich administration in 2003 in part because the roles of Antoin “Tony” Rezko and fellow fundraiser Christopher Kelly left him uncomfortable. They went from raising campaign funds before the 2002 election to being key players in the transition period, including naming people to state boards and commissions. ...”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-29/news/ct-met-blagojevich-trial-0630-20100629_1_blagojevich-trial-doug-scofield-fellow-fundraiser-christopher-kelly
_______________________________________

[Noamie]

“I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I think Blago got a bad rap. He never ended up selling any position in exchange for anything. Just a lot of big talk. The Dem Party elders were out to get him, and threw him to the sharks. I feel sorry for him. Has young kids. Didn’t deserve this long sentence just for the sin of being flamboyant by nature. The long knives were out for Blago. Surprisingly, if you will remember, he was on Trump’s The Apprentice, and did well on it.”

The attempt IS the crime. His being so stupid is just part of why he got caught. He deserved 25 years.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Did Blago let him ‘wet his beak a little’ or not?

[Bernard]

I grew up in Chicago and still live in Illinois, west of the Chicago metro area. What Blago did was par for the course, and his sentence was probably a trade for the treatment George Ryan got for the 20th century tradition of corruption at the Illinois Secretary of State office.

Don't forget that Ryan went to jail because an illegal alien bought a commercial driver license from Illinois, and when something fell off his truck and hit a mini-van on I94, 7 kids died in the fire and George Ryan was blamed. (Somehow, the press decided that if Senor Illegal had passed the driver test instead of buying the license, nothing would have fallen off his truck in the first place and those kids would still be alive today.)

And since then Jesse White has been SOS in Illinois. No mass arrests of SOS employees, no housecleaning, and yet since Jesse White has been SOS, that agency has been spotless. The Immaculate DeCorruption.

Should Blago stay in jail? Well, he probably did other illegal stuff that he was not caught for, so maybe if he spends more time in jail now God will be easier on him at judgement day.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It would be the capstone of Barky’s career...

[A CA Guy]

He’s white, no chance. Only black predictors get out.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Maybe a transfer to GITMO would be in order.

[SandRat]

No, NO, and NO!