For almost 10 years now, our family has endured unimaginable frustration and suffering. It all started when we were awoken at 6 a.m. on Dec. 9, 2008, with federal agents threatening to break down our door and arrest my husband in front of our terrified young daughters. I knew that our life would never be the same.
Before this seemingly never-ending nightmare brought our world crashing down, my husband’s life was the American dream.
Rod Blagojevich was born and raised in Chicago. His father was an immigrant steelworker from Serbia, who, during World War II, spent four years in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. His mother was a working mom who took fares and passed out transfers at the subway stations. His parents were hardworking and self-sacrificing. They never owned a home of their own. All their hard work was invested in giving their two sons opportunities they never had for themselves.
Rod’s parents raised their children to believe in God, to respect their elders, to work hard, and to love their country. His older brother Robert was a colonel in the U.S. Army.
Between the ages of nine and 13, Rod worked his first job shining shoes every day after school. Through high school and later during college, he took multiple blue-collar jobs: working in factories, in construction industry, and delivering pizzas. It was that work ethic and drive to succeed that helped Rod get elected to the Illinois House, Congress, and twice as governor of Illinois. Rod won 14 elections in a row.
As a congressman, he did great things around the world for many people. And as governor he achieved meaningful things for ordinary people.
So how did it all go so wrong?
Hindsight is always 20/20. Little did we know how truly corrupt the Obama-era Justice Department and FBI really were. With predawn raids, overzealous prosecutors with a flair for big, flashy press conferences and the need to secure convictions at all costs, even when the evidence suggests otherwise, we have learned the hard way how some prosecutors have weaponized their unchecked power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.
A few hours after the predawn raid where my husband was taken away, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald held a press conference where he announced to the world that Rod was trying to “sell” President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
That sensational charge is what people remember, but it was a lie. In July 2015, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed those charges, ruling that the so-called “sale of the Senate seat” was not a crime. It was nothing more than routine “political logrolling.”
My husband fought the charges. He resisted the relentless efforts by the prosecutors bullying him to plead guilty. They even threatened him with a life sentence. But he refused to give in.
Why? Because we trusted the system, unaware that the case against him was rigged from the beginning.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, former FBI chief James Comey, and Fitzgerald have done more than enough damage to our family. Their politically biased agendas and insatiable desire to convict, even where no crimes exist, should frighten every single citizen in our country.
And whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, whether you are a civil libertarian from the political Left or a constitutional conservative from the political Right, if you value freedom and love our country, you better wake up.
Rod is now in his seventh year of a 14-year sentence and he continues to help others.
He teaches classes and mentors fellow inmates as they prepare to reintegrate back into society. He even conducts mock job interviews to help prepare them for the workforce outside of prison. He even assists in preparing, reviewing, and editing some of their resumes.
I can tell you that life without my husband has been very difficult. It’s hard on me, and it’s even harder on our two girls. And every day we wake up thinking this was all a bad dream.
The government’s case against us has been so unfair. If Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and former Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., can be home with their loved ones tonight, why can’t Rod?
But I will not give up. I’ll continue to fight for justice and our country because thousands of men and women are sitting in jail today, just like my husband, serving sentences that they do not deserve.
Equal justice for all? Not yet.
Patti Blagojevich served as first lady of Illinois from 2003-2009.
