Who did he solicit? He said he wouldn’t give it up for nothing and he could assign himself to the Senate seat.
That’s not worth a seven-year let alone a fourteen-year sentence.
“Who did he solicit?”
There were six different candidates he was trying to basically auction the seat off to, including Lisa Madigan, Jesse Jackson Jr, and a person of Obama’s choice (thought to be Valerie Jarrett). He was entertaining offers of campaign contributions, contributions to a non-for-profit that would be under his control to pay him a salary after he left office, and, from Obama, an exchange of the Senate appointment for his own appointment to a cabinet-level position.
“He said he wouldn’t give it up for nothing and he could assign himself to the Senate seat.”
No, he said IF the people he was soliciting were not willing to give him something of value for it, he might appoint himself to the seat instead.
“That’s not worth a seven-year let alone a fourteen-year sentence.”
That also wasn’t the only thing he was convicted of. He was found guilty on fourteen different counts, for a whole range of corruption. Remember, they only caught him trying to sell the Senate seat because he was already under surveillance for all the other dirty stuff he was doing. So even if they only gave him one year for every count he was convicted of (which is basically the most lenient felony sentence), fourteen years would not be out of line at all.