President Trump’s indication last week that he may commute the prison sentence of former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich under his executive powers, generated public rebuke from many former federal prosecutors.
Despite this criticism, I believe the president should commute the sentence for two plain reasons. First, the governor served his time, and the prosecution’s case was a spectacle of aggression and self aggrandizement, the likes of which have not been applied to other equally flawed political figures. The prosecution was personal, and determined to punish Blagojevich for his public image, as opposed to alleged crimes.
Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called a press conference after Blagojevich’s arrest in December of 2009 during which he proclaimed in dramatic fashion “The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave”, alluding to excerpts of wiretapped phone conversations between the governor and associates while mulling potential candidates to fill the vacant Senate seat of then-President-elect Barack Obama.
Blagojevich was essentially sentenced to 14 years in prison for being crass on the phone. Meanwhile, similar corruption conviction sentences, such as those of former Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and former Republican Governor George Ryan, have been half or one-third of Blagojevich’s punishment. That is just wrong.
Ryan, Blagojevich’s predecessor, had been sentenced on September 6, 2006 to six and a half years in prison for racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud for taking payoffs while in office. Jackson, who had been closely affiliated with Blagojevich during their time in Illinois state government, was sentenced in 2013 to 30 months in prison for illegally spending campaign funds in the amount of $750,000 on personal items. His wife had also committed tax fraud omitting $580,000 in spending on lavish items, according to court documents. Yet the couple’s combined sentences don’t even amount to half of Blagojevich’s sentence, and he never received anything for the alleged solicitations.
Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for literally talking on the phone about campaign fundraising strategy. What the governor did was not uncommon in private, public, or nonprofit practice. It was his style and brashness that caused his downfall. Ironically, Jesse Jackson Jr. stunningly receives over $100,000 a year in disability pay even after his prison term, so truly the U.S. government’s current principles of justice need a good old fashion audit.
Objective observation would indicate that the prosecutors never took issue with Blagojevich’s “fight till his last breath” philosophy after his 2009 arrest, and his subsequent appearance on the hit show “Celebrity Apprentice.” Despite hours and hours of wiretapped conversation in which the ex-governor often times simply riddled and joked around on the phone, the prosecutors focused on conversations in which they allege he broke his duty to provide “honest services” to the public.
The honest services statute has been viewed with skepticism by legal experts, including the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who felt the law “invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators, and corporate CEO’s who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct.” Blagojevich’s case is the perfect example of the concerns Scalia articulated. Blagojevich was largely targeted for his bravado and brash style of campaign fundraising.
Oddly, one of the characters mulling Senate appointments on the phone with Blagojevich was J.B. Pritzker, the current Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois. During those conversations, Pritzker very cynically advised Blagojevich on “which” African American candidates for the empty Obama Senate seat would “look” better for the Illinois Democratic Party’s external optics. It wasn’t about the people of Illinois, it was about the Illinois Democratic Party.
Was it illegal? I doubt it, but it calls the term “honest services” back into question. In one particular conversation, Blagojevich jokingly asked Pritzker if he should appoint controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright as U.S. senator, at which both men laughed. Had Blagojevich nominated Reverend Wright and asked him in exchange to sing his now infamous “God damn America” bit at his birthday party in exchange for the appointment, would that have been illegal?
Blagojevich has served seven years in prison for his alleged crimes. He has been punished. His continued presence in prison does nothing to reform Illinois’ corrupt culture. Rather, it serves to punish the governor’s wife and daughters. Buried beneath these controversies is a political record of Blagojevich fighting for children’s healthcare, fighting to keep workers employed after economic downturns, and serving as a lead U.S. negotiator to free U.S. military hostages from Kosovo during his time in Congress.
Trump should take a bold stance on prison reform and commute the governor’s sentence. And federal prosecutors should revisit standards for prosecution that don’t involve flamboyant press conferences and personal vendettas. In my view, as a Republican political observer, Blagojevich served his time and should be freed by presidential commutation.
Christopher Neiweem is the Founder of Neiweem Group, a Republican Strategist, an Iraq War Veteran, and an Illinois native.
