By commuting the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, President Trump has boosted one of the mosquitolike corrupt officials who suck the blood out of democracy.
After all, this is not someone who deserves presidential leniency.
In December 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after being convicted of various corruption-related crimes he committed as Illinois governor. Most notable among these was his effort to sell the vacant Senate seat of newly elected President Barack Obama. Blagojevich was recorded on a wiretap referring to that seat, saying, “I’ve got this thing, and it’s f—ing golden. I’m just not giving it up for f—ing nothing.” The Democrat was also convicted of multiple attempted extortion attempts, including against a children’s hospital executive.
This betrayal of trust and rampant penchant for corruption speak to the absurdity of Trump’s commutation on Tuesday.
To be clear, Trump’s action doesn’t simply fuel the swamp. It floods it with gallons of festering water and a banqueting invitation to the mosquito corruption clique.
The president doesn’t seem to get this.
Explaining his decision, Trump said that he didn’t know Blagojevich all that well. But, the president noted affectionately, “He was on, for a short while, The Apprentice years ago.” The silliness continued. “Many people disagree with his sentence,” Trump insisted, without naming any, although a separate White House statement did list a small number of media personalities and a war criminal as supporting the commutation.
It got even sillier.
In an inadvertent effort to improve the public standing of his perceived enemies, Trump attacked former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for leading the prosecution. “It was a prosecution by the same people [as those who led the Russia investigation into the Trump campaign]: Comey, Fitzpatrick.” Trump’s not-so-helpful-to-himself implication? That he and Blagojevich are victims of the same conspiracy, though it bears noting here that Comey was not actually FBI director during the time of the prosecution.
But the saddest element of Trump’s decision is his total disregard for why Blagojevich deserved what he got. Lamenting the former governor’s “ridiculous sentence,” Trump shows that he doesn’t think that public corruption is that big a deal.
So much for draining the swamp.
