Free Republic

Dr. Eric Whitaker and Sen. Barack Obama go way back. Their friendship began when they were graduate students at Harvard University. Now, Whitaker is one of Obama's closest advisers. Whitaker, 43, of Chicago, often travels with the presidential hopeful on the campaign trail and has vacationed with him in Hawaii. There's talk Whitaker could be in line for a federal appointment if Obama becomes president. Five years ago, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, gave a "glowing'' reference for Whitaker to Tony Rezko, the now-convicted political fixer who helped Gov. Blagojevich find people to run state agencies. Blagojevich hired Whitaker...

The Democrat Party is a “very different party” than what he was acquainted with, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday. “It’s a different time right now. The Democratic Party is a very different party,” he said, noting that the “lunatic fringe” in the party have become the mainstream. “And these crazy left wing socialists are chasing at them — the more reasonable Democrats. Now, [Sen. Dick] Durbin is a professional politician, but he’s not an unreasonable person, and he’s not a crazy left-wing lunatic socialist,” he said, explaining that the fringe left is...

President Trump has pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of corruption-related crimes, including trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama. Blagojevich served as the state's governor from 2003-'09. It was a political saga toward the end of his time in office. In 2008, federal prosecutors accused Blagojevich of turning Illinois' government into a moneymaking operation for himself by trying to, among other things, shake down a children's hospital and racetrack owners. When prosecutors charged Blagojevich with corruption over the Senate seat, they presented as evidence a profanity-filled telephone conversation he had...

President Donald Trump is expected to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a person familiar with the plans. Blagojevich served eight years in prison on charges stemming from his effort to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election, until Trump commuted his 14-year sentence in 2020. Why it matters: Trump and Blagojevich have a relationship dating back to 2010, when the former governor appeared on the Trump-hosted "Celebrity Apprentice" after being impeached and removed from office. Blagojevich, who was a Democrat while in office, supported Trump in the 2024 election and attended the...

Former Democrat Illinois Governor Blagojevich reveals Obama-led machine behind coup to install Kamala as nominee:"This is KGB Police-State style politics...if we don't fix this: say goodbye to freedom in America because… The Obamas from the backroom control everything." (14 minute interview in the link below)https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1821554031178768767

Former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich stated Thursday on Fox News that black voters, one of the Democratic Party’s key voting blocs, will “rise up” and instead support former President Donald Trump following his guilty verdict. Blagojevich appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” to discuss the verdict. A New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts for alleged falsified business records. A judge previously sentenced Blagojevich to 14 years for trying to sell then-president-elect Barack Obama’s Illinois Senate seat, and Trump commuted it in 2020. Watters asked the former governor about his thoughts on the former president’s case....

The documents were posted on a court docket and later taken down It includes list of documents sorted by 'privilege review teams' Trump has fumed about documents FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago Documents include 2016 letter from Dr. Harold Bornstien Several reference pardon discussions Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Marc Kasowitz, Cleta Mitchell mentioned The Justice Department inadvertently disclosed a list of Donald Trump documents being vetted by 'privilege review teams' that were included among thousands of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago. The documents, which Trump's lawyers are trying to keep out of the hands of government investigators, includes discussions about presidential pardons...

Ever since President Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, I’ve been asking myself why he would do such a thing. I have a theory about what might have contributed to the decision, and if I’m right, Barack Obama should be concerned. When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, it was then-Governor Blagojevich’s responsibility to appoint someone to fill the seat. But, Blagojevich didn’t just want to give it away, he wanted something for it. “A Senate seat is a f---ing valuable thing. You don’t just give it away for nothing,” Blagojevich said at...

Former Illinois Governor Blagojevich says he was a 'political prisoner'; Matt Finn reports from Chicago. #FoxNews

Convicted political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko has granted his first television interview since he went to prison for corruption. "I was indicted, tried and convicted for a crime I did not commit," he told ABC7's Charles Thomas. "Here I am serving a 10 and a 1/2 year sentence that I believe I do not deserve." Rezko was the wealthiest and most influential member of former governor Rod Blagojevich's inner circle. As he sits in the federal penitentiary in downstate Pekin, Ill., four years after his conviction, Rezko still says he did not do it. At least not the 16 fraud,...

In the run-up to the 2012 election, a story surfaced about an Iraqi billionaire who managed to buy access to Washington policy makers while funding a Chicago Pay-to-Play scheme that helped produce a Governor, a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, a President of the United States. The story was eight years in the making, yet despite the extent of his political influence, this Iraqi’s name remains widely unknown. He wants it that way. In fact, he has spent millions of dollars to hinder the reporting of his activities by the news media. The lack of attention paid to him, however, is...

How did Barack Obama emerge from Chicago in 2008 untainted by political corruption? His rise to power began at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention when Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was catapulted onto the national stage by the alluring force of his oratory.

A badly burned body found on the floor of a River North parking garage early Tuesday has been identified as a 60-year-old real estate attorney, officials said. Louis S. Cohen, 60, was of the 200 block of Ivy Lane in Highland Park, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Wednesday was pending and did not determine a cause and manner for Cohen’s death, the office said. Just before 6 a.m. Tuesday, police and fire crews responded to a fire in the 11th floor of a parking garage in the 300 block of North LaSalle Drive and found...

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans’ “failed philosophy”. Obama’s September 15 comments were repeated throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama’s glaring conflict of interest—the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko.

WASHINGTON — President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, the Democrat who was convicted of trying to essentially sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain, and pardoned the financier Michael R. Milken and Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, the president announced on Tuesday. “Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Mr. Trump told reporters just before boarding Air Force One for a four-day trip to the west coast where he is scheduled to hold three campaign rallies. “He served eight years in jail, a...

The editors of the Washington Post are upset that President Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza. They also express concern that Trump might pardon Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich. I have no problem with the D’Souza pardon. The Obama administration threw the book at D’Souza for a relatively small campaign finance law offense that, as I understand it, normally results in a slap on the wrist. It did so, in all likelihood, for the same reason the Post is unhappy with the pardon — D’Souza was a strident and effective critic of the Obama administration and of liberalism in general. According to...

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the New York Times reported Tuesday.Several Trump administration aides had claimed to ABC that the president is planning to grant the former governor clemency. Trump had previously hinted he was looking into commuting the 14-year sentence, which was originally handed down after Blagojevich was convicted of trying to sell the Senate seat of then-president elect Barack Obama in 2008, according to NBC Chicago. https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1229845536511070209 “Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. he served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him,” Trump...

Trump commuted the remainder of Blagojevich’s 14-year prison term. the Illinois Democrat had begun serving that sentence in 2013 after he was found guilty of attempting to trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama for money or favors. The president announced that he had issued pardons to Kerik and DeBartolo. Kerik, who oversaw the NYPD during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, pleaded guilty in 2009 to charges of felony tax fraud and lying to the government. He was released from federal prison in 2013.

His commutation of Blago will confirm that Trump knows all about 3D justice: Diversion-Distraction-Disinformation President Trump will commute former Illinois Governor Rod “Blago” Blagojevich’s prison sentence in time for Blago to be home for Christmas, after 6-plus years in the Federal Correctional Institution at Englewood, Colorado. When it happens, the reaction from the two major newspapers in Chicago is predictable. The Chicago Tribune and the Sun Times, but particularly the “Trib,” will be apoplectic. Hints to that response have surfaced.