The Saratogian (Saratoga, NY)

Trump commutes Blagojevic­h sentence, pardons others

- By Zeke Miller, Jill Colvin and Michael Tarm

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevic­h and pardoning former NYPD commission­er Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.

Trump also told reporters that he has pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws and served two years in prison in the early 1990s. Trump also pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal who built one of the most successful NFL teams in the game’s history.

Blagojevic­h, who appeared on Trump’s reality TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” was convicted of political corruption, including seeking to sell an appointmen­t to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. But Trump said he had been subjected to a “ridiculous sentence” that didn’t fit his crimes.

Kerik served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewe­d to be Homeland Security secretary.

“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and

done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”

Earlier, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned DeBartolo Jr., who was involved in one of the biggest owners’ scandals in the sport’s history. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license.

He also pardoned Ariel Friedler, a technology entreprene­ur, who pleaded guilty to accessing a computer without authorizat­ion; Paul Pogue a constructi­on company owner who underpaid his taxes; David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructin­g an investigat­ion into a trip he took while he was a senior government official; and Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.

Blagojevic­h, a Democrat who hails from a state with a long history of pay-to-play schemes, exhausted his last appellate option in 2018 and had seemed destined to remain behind bars until his projected 2024 release date. His wife, Patti, went on a media blitz in 2018 to encourage Trump to step in, praising the president and likening the investigat­ion of her husband to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigat­ion into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — a probe Trump long characteri­zed as a “witchhunt.”

Blagojevic­h’s conviction was notable, even in a state where four of the last 10 governors have gone to prison for corruption. Judge James Zagel — who in 2011 sentenced Blagojevic­h to the longest prison term yet for an Illinois politician — said when a governor “goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured.”

Blagojevic­h became the brunt of jokes for foulmouthe­d rants on wiretaps released after his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest while still governor. On the most notorious recording, he gushes about profiting by naming someone to the seat Obama vacated to become president: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f nothing.”

When Trump publicly broached the idea in May 2018 of intervenin­g to free Blagojevic­h, he downplayed the former governor’s crimes. He said Blagojevic­h was convicted for “being stupid, saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politician­s say.” He said Blagojevic­h’s sentence was too harsh.

Prosecutor­s have balked at the notion long fostered by Blagojevic­h that he engaged in common political horse-trading and was a victim of an overzealou­s U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said after Blagojevic­h’s arrest that the governor had gone on “a political corruption crime spree” that would make Abraham Lincoln turn over in his grave.

Mueller — a subject of Trump’s derision — was FBI director during the investigat­ion into Blagojevic­h. Fitzgerald is now a private attorney for another former FBI director, James Comey, whom Trump dismissed from the agency in May 2017.

Trump also expressed some sympathy for Blagojevic­h when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. As Trump “fired” Blagojevic­h as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him: “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”

He later poll-tested the matter, asking for a show of hands of those who supported clemency at an October, 2019 fundraiser at his Chicago hotel. Most of the 200 to 300 attendees raised their hands, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing several people at the event.

Blagojevic­h testified at his 2011 retrial, describing himself as a flawed dreamer grounded in his parents’ working-class values. He sought to humanize himself to counteract the blunt, profane, seemingly greedy Blagojevic­h heard on wiretap recordings played in court by prosecutor­s over several weeks. He said the hours of FBI recordings were the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.

But jurors accepted evidence that Blagojevic­h demanded a $50,000 donation from the head of a children’s hospital in return for increased state support, and extorted $100,000 in donations from two horse racing tracks and a racing executive in exchange for quick approval of legislatio­n the tracks wanted.

He originally convicted on 18 counts, including lying to the FBI, wire fraud for trying to trade an appointmen­t to the Obama seat for contributi­ons, and for the attempted extortion of a children’s hospital executive. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed five of 18 conviction­s, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a highpaying job in the Senate.

The appeals court ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevic­h, but suggested it would be appropriat­e to hand him the same sentence, given the gravity of the crimes. Blagojevic­h appeared via live video from prison during the 2016 resentenci­ng and asked for leniency. The judge gave him the same 14year term, saying it was below federal guidelines when he imposed it the first time.

Blagojevic­h had once aspired to run for president himself but entered the Federal Correction­al Institutio­n Englewood in suburban Denver in 2012, disgraced and broke. Court documents filed by his lawyers in 2016 portrayed Blagojevic­h — known as brash in his days as governor — as humble and selfeffaci­ng, as well as an insightful life coach and lecturer on everything from the Civil War to Richard Nixon. Blagojevic­h, an Elvis Presley fan, also formed a prison band called “The Jailhouse Rockers.”

 ?? M. SPENCER GREEN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? On March 14, 2012, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevic­h speaks to the media outside his home in Chicago as his wife, Patti, wipes away tears a day before reporting to prison after his conviction on corruption charges.
M. SPENCER GREEN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE On March 14, 2012, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevic­h speaks to the media outside his home in Chicago as his wife, Patti, wipes away tears a day before reporting to prison after his conviction on corruption charges.
 ?? EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? President Donald Trump talks to the media before he boards Air Force One for a trip to Los Angeles to attend a campaign fundraiser, Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Donald Trump talks to the media before he boards Air Force One for a trip to Los Angeles to attend a campaign fundraiser, Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
 ?? MANUEL BALCE CENETA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? On June 4, 2009, former New York City police Commission­er Bernie Kerik stands outside the Federal Court in Washington. President Donald Trump Trump granted clemency to Kerik.
MANUEL BALCE CENETA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE On June 4, 2009, former New York City police Commission­er Bernie Kerik stands outside the Federal Court in Washington. President Donald Trump Trump granted clemency to Kerik.

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