Why Obama May Be Terrified by Trump Commuting Blagojevich’s Sentence

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PJ Media

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 the time.

 

In 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 11 years in prison on corruption charges. Of course, he wanted a pardon from Obama, but never got one. That had to be tough for the disgraced governor, considering Obama granted clemency to terrorists and traitors, but couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give one to a former political ally.

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Blagojevich’s Release Is a Chance to Tackle Corruption in Illinois

• Four of the most recent eleven governors have gone to prison, and Pritzker is currently facing a federal probe over allegations that he removed toilets from a Chicago mansion in a scheme to save $331,000 in property taxes.
• 30 Chicago aldermen have pleaded guilty to or been convicted of corruption since 1972.
• Federal prosecutors logged 1,731 public corruption convictions between 1976 and 2017 in the Northern District of Illinois, the district that includes Chicago.
• Illinois has seen 891 corruption convictions since 2000, or nearly one per week, making it the most corrupt state in the nation during that time.
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WATCH] Rod Blagojevich Dishes Dirt on Barack Obama, Warns of More Bombshells

Convicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich went on Fox News in his first post-release interview and held very little back about Barack Obama's involvement in the scandal that put him in prison, while the first black president was never held accountable.

Appearing on "Watters' World" with Jesse Watters, Blagojevich was quickly asked about the 2008 Senate-seat-for-sale scandal, in which Blagojevich had negotiated appointing an Obama-approved candidate, in exchange for a cabinet position.

 

“Did you ever talk to Barack Obama about this Senate seat? Did he have any knowledge about what was going on or not?” Watters asked.

“President Obama began the whole conversation because he sent someone to me as a middleman, a mediator — not unusual in politics — on the night he was elected president to say that he’d like to talk about his choice for the Senate and to see what I might be willing to ask for,” Blagojevich told him. “Political horse-trading, not what those corrupt prosecutors said it was.”

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Blagojevich criticizes Pritzker, Madigan, the Springfield 'swamp'

“$7 million from J.B. to Mike Madigan’s campaign coffers in order to get Madigan to support him for governor and, frankly, to pass his legislative agenda,” he said. “Madigan is basically holding him up for that campaign money similar to what he tried to do with me. He asked me for two-and-a-half percent of my campaign fund the year I was running for re-election and when I politely declined, I predicted rightfully that he was going to block our initiatives and try hard to push a tax increase for political purposes, less than to serve any kind of good purpose.” 

Blagojevich, matching the notoriously high-energy WLS host, dove into his own interpretation of how the long-time speaker wields such influence. 

“He’s the Wizard of Oz,” he told Mancow. “He’s the kind of guy where if you move that curtain, he ain’t so tough, OK, but he’s a sneaky little guy...He controls all of the apparatus of government. He’s got a bunch of lemmings, state [representatives] who talk a big game when they’re back home and as soon as they get down to Springfield they just forget about all that and they take their marching orders from him because what he does is he gives them committee assignments...virtually every one of those state lawmakers was on a committee. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.” 

Blagojevich wouldn’t divulge anything else he knew about Pritzker or others, saying he would save that for an upcoming book he planned to write.