WASHINGTON — President Trump is expected to pardon former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, according to Axios.
Axios cited a source familiar with the plans.
Blagojevich was released from federal prison in Colorado in Feb. 2020 after then-President Trump commuted his sentence after seven of 14 years. He spoke to WGN News the night he was released at the airport ahead of a media frenzy on the way to and at his North Side home.
In 2018, the former Illinois governor filed paperwork to formally request clemency from Trump.
Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office after being convicted in 2011. He had been found guilty of crimes that included seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital.
On Friday, Politico reported that Trump is considering nominating Blagojevich to become U.S. ambassador to Serbia.
Blagojevich’s parents immigrated from Serbia in the 1940s.
The former governor went to a federal judge last March in an effort to overturn his ineligibility to hold office.
“The case started with a megaphone, but it ends with a whimper. Sometimes cases in the federal courthouse attract publicity. But the courthouse is no place for a publicity stunt,” the judge wrote before closing the case with three sentences: “He wants back. But he’s already gone. Case dismissed.”
In an interview with NesNation affiliate WGN a year after his prison release, Blagojevich stated no remorse.
“I didn’t break a single law or cross a single line,” he said.
