So much for “draining the swamp.” President Trump has just commuted the 14-year prison sentence of corrupt former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich despite opposition from Illinois Republican lawmakers.
Trump’s commutation of Blagojevich and his recent intervention in the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone say something about the president and the friends he keeps.
Blagojevich was prosecuted for multiple shakedowns and for an attempt to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. His offenses weren’t minor. They were criminal and repetitive. At one point, he was found guilty on 17 counts of corruption. Yet Trump has dismissed all of this as “braggadocio.”
“He’s been in jail for seven years over a phone call where nothing happens — over a phone call which he shouldn’t have said what he said, but it was braggadocio, you would say,” Trump said. “I would think that there have been many politicians — I’m not one of them, by the way — that have said a lot worse over the telephone.”
Stone, a former Trump associate, was found guilty on seven charges, including making false statements, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional investigation.
Trump seems to find solidarity with individuals he believes have been “wronged” in the same way he believes he’s been mistreated. With Blagojevich, Trump seems to think the Illinois politician’s attempts to sell influence were grossly exaggerated. The same goes for Stone: Trump has argued that the prosecutors who were involved in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt” went after Stone.
Neither allegation is true. Blagojevich was convicted because he repeatedly used the power of his office to extort others for campaign contributions and other favors. Stone was convicted because he deliberately lied to Congress and then attempted to cover his trail.
Both men engaged in political corruption, the likes of which Trump promised to fight when he ran a campaign against the deep state. And he is undermining this agenda by reducing the sentences of both men and accepting their crimes as common occurrences.
