Trump pardons Rod Blagojevich. Why?

Abusive use of the president’s pardon power didn’t start with Donald Trump. Far from it. We’ve seen other presidents pardon family members, good friends, associates, and financial backers.

Trump did break new ground when he issued pardons to the violent thugs who attacked police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Past presidents had granted clemency to a violent activist/anarchist here or there, typically after the criminal had served decades in prison. But as fara as I know, never before had one granted mass pardons to members of a violent, lawless mob without regard to their individual circumstances.

The key to the Jan. 6 pardons was that the rioters had tried to serve Trump’s interests. In that sense, I suppose, they were like campaign contributors. But campaign contributors don’t assault and injure police officers.

Now comes word that Trump has pardoned Rod Blagojevich. He was the crooked governor of Illinois convicted of corruption-related crimes. One was trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. Another was shaking down a children’s hospital executive for campaign contributions. There were others, as well.

The evidence against Blagojevich was overwhelming. It included the recording of a telephone conversation in which he said, “I mean, I've got this thing [the Senate seat], and it's [expletive] golden. And I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing," According to testimony, he sought $1.5 million in campaign contributions or other personal benefits in return. That’s not nothing.

Blagojevich doesn’t fit well into a pardon category. He’s not a member of Trump’s family or (as far as I can tell) a close friend. He did appear on the future president’s television show, Celebrity Apprentice. Trump “fired” him. And it’s unlikely (though possible) that Blagojevich was a major contributor to a Trump campaign.

Nor did Blagojevich commit his crimes in an attempt to help Trump. He committed them for the sole purpose of personal enrichment.

Why, then, did Trump pardon Blagojevich?

One very plausible explanation is that they have common “enemies.” Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor in Blagojevich’s case, later represented James Comey after Trump fired the former FBI director. And Robert Mueller was serving as director of the FBI during the Blagojevich prosecution.

In fact, Trump occasionally drew parallels between his legal battles and that of Blagojevich. And he specifically referenced Comey and Fitzgerald (whom Trump called “Fitzpatrick”)— when he commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2000.

But the parallels between the Blagojevich prosecution and the Trump persecution are specious — a fact about which Trump should be proud. Trump’s legal battles, at least during his first term, really were, at root, a politically motivated attack by what he considered (and I agree) to be the Deep State.

Blagojevich’s legal woes were nothing of the kind. He was a Democrat. His prosecution was brought by the Obama Justice Department.

Neither Mueller nor Fitzgerald would have had any nefarious reason to go after Blagojevich. Nor was the evidence against him concocted. It didn’t come from a dubious “dossier.” It came from the defendant’s own words. It was overwhelming.

Clearly, Blagojevich was prosecuted for being a blatant crook and, as is usual in these cases, for being stupid enough to be caught red-handed.

If Trump pardoned a blatantly crooked politician because he considered him an enemy of his enemy’s (Comey’s) friend (Fitzgerald), that’s taking the pardon power to a new, self-absorbed low.

Examining this pardon, Jim Geraghty asks: “Is there any corrupt Democrat who can’t get a sweet deal and get-out-of-jail free card from Donald Trump. . .[by] whin[ing] that he was targeted by the ‘deep state’ and ‘lawfare’ too.”

We’ll find out soon. Bob Menendez reportedly is lobbying for a pardon by asserting, you guessed it, that “President Trump is right. This [judicial] process is political and has been corrupted to the core.”

Unfortunately for the New Jersey sleazeball, he voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials. He went so far as to call Republican Senators who voted not to convict in the second impeachment trial, political “cowards.”

There’s another possible explanation for Blagojevich pardon. It might be that Trump doesn’t think Blagojevich did anything truly wrong.

Trump’s words provide some support for this alternative or complementary explanation. He said of Blagojevich: “I think he’s a very fine person. This shouldn’t have happened to him.”

That’s not the same thing as saying the disgraced ex-governor did nothing wrong, but it’s close. And keep in mind that this pardon follows the commutation by Trump of Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020. The 2025 pardon is not Trump saying the sentence was too harsh. It’s him saying Blagojevich shouldn’t have been convicted.

Frankly, I don’t find it implausible that Trump holds the view that a public official extracting bribes for favors is no true crime. Trump is an art-of-the-deal guy. He is always looking for something in return for a favor.

That’s what got him impeached (wrongly) the first time. He was looking for something (an investigation of the Bidens) in exchange for aid to Ukraine. (The aid wasn’t even a favor. Congress had already appropriated the money.)

I’m not saying that Trump has ever been a party to bribery. I don’t know that he ever has. But Blagojevich’s statement — “I've got this thing and it's golden. And I'm just not giving it up for nothing” — sounds to me like something Trump would say, (though not, I hope, in committing a crime).

Judging from Trump’s pardons as a whole, I fear that his commitment to law and order is contingent and transactional.