WASHINGTON (WLS) — Reactions are pouring in after President Donald Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Monday.
He served time in prison on corruption charges that included a scheme to sell a vacant Senate seat.
Watch the full I-Team interview with the former governor after his pardon.
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Gov. JB Pritzker spoke at an unrelated event Tuesday morning, but did not answer any questions on the pardon.
Blagojevich, 68, was convicted back in 2011 on a host of corruption charges: most notably for trying to sell former President Barack Obama’s Senate seat for political favors.
“Even though he’s been released and is able to be in freedom, you’re not really free with a conviction like this hanging over your head, so to have a pardon, I’m just really happy for him and his family,” said Lauren Kaeseberg, Blagojevich’s former attorney.
During his first term, President Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year-sentence after only eight years behind bars.
On Monday evening, Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon, clearing the former governor’s record entirely.
“President Trump saw what happened. I would just think it is when someone goes through something like we went through, and what he’s gone through, it creates a certain understanding between people that something isn’t right. And something’s wrong,” Blagojevich said during a late-night news conference outside his Ravenswood Manor home Monday.
Just 24 hours after Trump signed a full and complete pardon for Blagojevich, the former governor sat down with the I-Team for a wide-ranging interview.
Blagojevich spoke on his new beginning after being pardoned by Trump Tuesday.
“These, this unlikely convergence of events between President Trump and I, and our lives, and how they connected with similar circumstances, to some extent, has to be divine intervention. And I believe it’s the hand of God, and President Trump has been really his instrument,” Blagojevich said.
Blagojevich said he never asked for a pardon, but got a call two weeks ago from President Trump delivering the news.
Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who co-sponsored the bill to launch the impeachment committee against Blagojevich, said he’s unworthy of a pardon.
“I believe Illinois will always remember Gov. Blagojevich for the crimes that he committed against its people and its reputation, and it’s forever a black eye that we will have that, cannot be erased from this pardon,” Mendoza said.
Sen. Dick Durbin said on X, “In a state with more than its fair share of public corruption, the Blagojevich chapter still looms as one of the worst. America and Serbia deserve better.”
The man who succeeded Blagojevich as governor is calling the pardon disappointment for the people of Illinois.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn is joining a list of those critical of President Trump’s decision.
Quinn served as Blagojevich’s lieutenant governor, and became governor himself after Blagojevich was impeached.
He said the pardon was wrong.
“It was basically a political pardon for someone who committed serious political corruption in Illinois that was found by a jury of everyday people: serious matters that betrayed the trust of the people of our state,” Quinn said.
And Quinn noted that Blagojevich has never shown any remorse, or admitted to any wrongdoing for the political corruption he served eight years in prison for.
Blagojevich reiterated his innocence claims Monday night after being pardoned.
“I want to say to the people of Illinois two things. No. 1, I never raised your taxes. And No. 2, I didn’t do it. It was all political talk,” he said.
In his interview with the I-Team, he went on to say he would not admit wrongdoing.
“Absolutely not, nothing, I’ll give you some wrongdoing. I trusted the system. I thought they’d be honest. I thought the judge was an honest judge. He’s a corrupt political hack. There’s a Republican judges appointed by Republican presidents, that judge that did that to me, and those prosecutors, Republican prosecutors, did it to me. I went to prison and suffered for a long, long time for political conversations started by Barack Obama. He did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. He went to the White House for eight years. I went to the big house for eight years. And no, I give myself high mark for being defiant because when you stand up to evil, you’re pleasing God,” Blagojevich said.
Quinn accused Blagojevich of pardon hypocrisy.
“When he was governor, he had the power to pardon. When everyday people petitioned him for a pardon, he ignored it. He was too lazy, didn’t look at the cases,” Quinn said.
Jesse Jackson Jr., who was hoping for a pardon from President Joe Biden, is now hoping Blagojevich can help him get one from Trump.
Tuesday morning at a West Side Black history event, former Congressman Jackson Jr., who also served time on federal corruption charges, was frustrated by pardon inequity, for himself and millions of others.
“I’ve done more than Hunter Biden did. He did no time. I’ve done more than all of the members of the Biden family. They’ve done no time, and yet, the president of the United States extended grace to their lives,” Jackson said.
But Jackson said he’s happy for Blagojevich.
“I’m excited for the Blagojevich family. My father and I have been advocating for his commutation, initially in 2019, and his full, complete and absolute pardon since at least 2019,” Jackson said.
The former governor said he would like to be helpful in putting in a good word with the president to ask for a pardon for Jackson. Though, Blagojevich said it may take some persuading given his vocal support for former Vice President Harris.
Blagojevich proudly identifies himself as a Trumpocrat. Last summer at the Republican National Convention, he was stumping for Trump at a Serbians for Trump event.
Blagojevich also appeared on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Trump expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. When Trump fired Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him, “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”
“I still consider myself a Democrat, but I’m a Democrat for Trump,” he said at the time.
Patti Blagojevich spent nearly two years making public pleas for her husband’s release during Trump’s first term, appearing often on Fox News Channel, which Trump devotedly watches. She drew parallels between her husband’s treatment and Trump’s, along with showering Trump with praise.
“It was a prosecution by the same people – Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group,” Trump told reporters. He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and later represented former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired from the agency in May 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 between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.
Former Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said he’s disappointed, but not surprised.
“With this administration, whether you’re a January 6th defendant, and now you have a Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in the Northern District of Illinois, his convictions were upheld by all the courts. It just really undermines the rule of law,” Durkin said. “I was involved. I was known as the ranking member on the impeachment committee on Rod Blagojevich, and I know exactly all the schemes that he had played on Illinois citizens and taxpayers. He should not be rewarded for this and for somehow to rewrite history with Rod Blagojevich is just a shame that this president is doing it.”
Blagojevich, who recently visited with the president of Serbia, is reportedly under consideration to be the US Ambassador to that country.
But, if he had any future ambitions to run for office, he is still not completely in the clear because of his impeachment back in 2009, while still governor.
“If his prime goal is to run for office in Illinois, he still can’t do it because he was barred from doing it in connection with his impeachment proceedings. A pardon doesn’t undo that limitation,” ABC7 Chicago legal analyst Gil Soffer said. “He doesn’t need a federal pardon to be eligible to serve as ambassador to Serbia, and other practical reasons why it could be helpful. It might be easier for him to pass through the Senate because ambassador positions do require Senate approval.”
Blagojevich always could run for federal office, even with the Illinois law that barred him from running for state office.
When asked if Illinoisans would elect him again, the former governor said, “That’s up to them, and we’ll see whether or not that’s even an option down the road, but I’m happy where I’m at, and I’m grateful for the new beginning I’ve given.”
During a Monday night press conference, Blagojevich declined to comment on that ambassadorship to Serbia, where his family is from, and said he has not thought about running for public office.
He did comment Tuesday.
“Well, I don’t, I’m not even asking for that. I’m just sort of saying that in jest, but I have a long way to go. And you know, it’s time to rebuild. It’s a rebuilding process. And let me give perspective to your listeners and your viewers. For the eight years I was in prison, my income, what I brought into my family, was a whopping $62 a year. I went to law school for that to make $62 a year doing the different jobs you required to do in prison. So, I had a long way to go to catch up,” he said.
Blagojevich was also asked on his thoughts regarding former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s ongoing trial.
“I don’t allow myself to wish bad on people, even though, you know, they, I didn’t feel like they were anything but antagonistic to me. So, I don’t, I don’t even follow it. I don’t follow it all,” Blagojevich said.
It wasn’t clear if Blagojevich will get back his federal pension after the pardon.
“You know that’s an issue that my wife handles, those pension issues. I honestly never really thought about those things. I consider myself still a very young man, when I was 68, and so I lived, you know, I think a not altogether uneventful life. I don’t feel like I’m even close to thinking about retirement. Let me put it this way, I got a better chance of being ambassador of Serbia than I do about retirement,” he said.
Blagojevich even weighed in on his hair color Tuesday.
“Yeah, this color is what I called statesman gray. And the more I eat home cooking, well, I mean, it has no food, I mean, but I just that I didn’t like that my hair. I just felt like I ran slower. It’s harder for me, you know. I did fewer push ups. Like, the darker my hair is I feel more vigorous. I run faster. I can do more push-ups,” he said.
Already this term, Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,500 people, all of whom were charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The clemency, announced on Trump’s first day back in office, paved the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s decision to commute Blagojevich’s sentence was met with bipartisan criticism in Illinois. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said at the time that Trump “has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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