Crime & Law
Illinois Politicians React to Trump’s Pardon of Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich: ‘It Does Not Seem Fair’
Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight” is David Melton, a board member for Reform for Illinois, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization for public participation in government. (Produced by Shelby Hawkins)
When President Donald Trump signed the papers to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich of 18 felonies, the president explained his reasoning.
“He was set up by a lot of bad people,” Trump said. “It was a sort of terrible injustice.”
Those who saw from under the Capitol dome how Illinois was plagued by Blagojevich’s leadership, and who helped drive him out of office in the months following his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest on corruption charges, view it differently.
“Anybody that had lived in the state of Illinois during that time and saw how dysfunctional and chaotic that administration was … it does not seem fair,” state Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said. “This man abused his power and there definitely was a pay-for-play.”
Tracy, who is now in the state Senate, was a member of the special House committee formed to investigate Blagojevich’s wrongdoings.
Former House Minority Leader Jim Durkin was the ranking Republican on the panel, which recommended the House impeach Blagojevich.
“Blagojevich was not set up,” Durkin said. “Rod Blagojevich set himself up. And he deserved what he got. His convictions on the various charges — whether it’s shaking down Children’s Memorial (Hospital), pay-to-play situations and also the trading (of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s) Senate seat, … it was as plain as the nose on his face.”
Durkin said lawmakers on the House committee, and later in the Senate, which then served as the jury and unanimously voted to remove Blagojevich as governor, took great precautions with their inquiry. They kept in touch with the FBI so as not to impede its investigation, and gave Blagojevich the opportunity to present witnesses, evidence and a defense, though the then-governor didn’t take it.
“We did it in a very thoughtful manner,” Durkin said, creating rules to govern the proceedings. “Because there’s really no instructions under state law or constitution how we’re supposed to do that. So there’s no ‘Impeachment 101’ seminar we could take.”
Durkin said coming into office, Democrat Blagojevich had a “great opportunity to be a good governor.” He was “charismatic” and took office on the heels of his predecessor, Republican Gov. George Ryan, facing his own charges for corruption.
“But he was never satisfied being governor,” Durkin said. “He wanted to be president or vice president of the United States, and was taking extraordinary illegal measures to raise money. And we found that out quick enough.”
Durkin said there was widespread awareness in the Capitol that Blagojevich was “shifty,” but the degree to which was only made known with the mound of evidence put forth by the FBI.
Former state Rep. John Fritchey was one of the first Democratic legislators to openly take actions to oust Blagojevich, and also served on the House special investigative committee.
Fritchey had shared a Kedzie Avenue office with Blagojevich and Blagojevich’s father-in-law, then Chicago Ald. Dick Mell, in 1996, when Blagojevich successfully ran for Congress and as Fritchey worked to win the Illinois House seat being vacated by Blagojevich.
Even before Blagojevich’s early morning surprise arrest in 2008, Fritchey recalls how then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan had already been preparing a case to remove Blagojevich from office, not based on illegal crimes but for mismanagement of the state.
Although they were both Democrats, the two didn’t get along. Madigan was often a brick, standing in Blagojevich’s way on ambitious policies.
The powerful Democrats couldn’t be more different: Blagojevich was the ultimate backslapping slacker, Fritchey said, and Madigan a hardworking “walking enigma.”
It’s ironic, Fritchey noted, that Madigan is now waiting for a jury in a federal corruption trial to determine his fate, as Madigan’s nemesis is now free.
Blagojevich, who spent a portion of his time between the governor’s office and the start of a 14-year prison sentence as a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” spent only eight years in a federal penitentiary thanks to Trump in 2020 commuting his sentence.
Since then, Blagojevich has moved back in with his wife, Patti, in Ravenswood. The prolific runner is often seen jogging, and he’s been paid to send video messages via the Cameo platform.
The former Democratic governor converted to a MAGA devotee and recently praised Trump’s “resilience, his strength, his fortitude.”
Blagojevich insisted, as he long has, that he “broke no laws, crossed no lines, never took a penny. It was all politics” and that his prosecution told a “big lie.”
It’s similar, Blagojevich said, to what Trump went through as federal prosecutors went after him on dozens of charges in four criminal cases. Trump was convicted in one case for falsifying business records. In three cases that were since dismissed, Trump was accused of election fraud, keeping classified information and attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Fritchey wasn’t surprised to see Blagojevich play the “kindred spirits” angle as he strove for a pardon.
“I think that on a certain level Trump has been made to see some of himself in Rod,” Fritchey said. “One thing everyone can agree on is that Rod is, was, an excellent campaigner, and he campaigned hard for this part.”
Just as Blagojevich’s governorship will have an asterisk — the first governor in Illinois history to be impeached and removed from office — so, too, will his pardon, Fritchey said, given that he was pardoned by Trump, himself a convicted felon.
Both Fritchey and Durkin said many others are far more deserving of presidential pardons.
Whether it’s someone convicted of a lower-level drug or white-collar crime, “shouldn’t these people be given greater consideration? They’re the ones who are sitting in prison, rotting away for the crimes they committed, but ones (crimes) that don’t even come close to what Rod did to the citizens of Illinois,” said Durkin, a prosecutor.
Fritchey said former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is more deserving than Blagojevich.
“He’s a guy that served his time, that has been very engaged in saying, ‘I fell short of what was expected of me,’” Fritchey said.
The impact the pardon will have on Blagojevich’s life is unclear.
Because his crimes were connected to his elected office, Blagojevich is ineligible to draw on a state pension.
His erased criminal record raises the question of whether he could attempt to claim annual payouts from the state retirement system, though he apparently has not tried.
"Mr. Blagojevich has never applied for, nor received any benefit from the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS),” GARS assistant executive secretary Jeff Houch told WTTW News in an email. “He has also not applied for a refund of his participant contributions.”
Even if Blagojevich made a bid for a pension, Houch indicated it would not work, citing a 2011 opinion from then Attorney General Lisa Madigan that “Blagojevich forfeited his pension benefits … because all 18 of his felony convictions clearly arose out of and in connection with his service as Governor of the State of Illinois.”
“GARS contends his pardon does not change that outcome,” Houch said. “GARS contends that the only payment Mr. Blagojevich is eligible to receive is a refund of his contributions, which total $101,917.86.”
The General Assembly’s actions forcing Blagojevich from the governor’s office also forbid him from running for local or state office in Illinois, and a state law prevents those convicted of “infamous crimes” from holding office in Illinois.
Trump did not dismiss the possibility of appointing Blagojevich to a post when asked if he’s considering making him ambassador to Serbia.
When the headlines fade, the pardon may not otherwise have a tangible impact on Blagojevich’s life.
But Tracy said it does have an impact on Illinois residents.
“I support President Trump in many ways,” Tracy said, “but I don’t think he understands that this just signals that the corruption in Illinois is just accepted, rather than it has to stop.”
Jared Rutecki contributed to this report.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
