Trump Defends Himself by Citing Rod Blagojevich, the Impeached and Imprisoned Illinois Governor

“These prosecutors, with their unchecked power and no oversight at all, can go after any politician.”

Donald Trump

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blogojevich is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for corruption and bribery, but that didn’t stop President Donald Trump from pointing to the disgraced Democrat’s plight as an example of overreach by federal prosecutors.

Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon that Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum’s interview with Blagojevich’s wife, Patricia, was “required television watching.” Trump also urged his followers to watch a different Fox News segment featuring conservative author Jerome Corsi, who recently filed suit against special counsel Robert Mueller’s office for allegedly blackmailing him to lie in the investigation into Trump.

Given how seldom Trump manages to reach across the aisle, his recommendation of the Blagojevich interview seems especially jarring. During her interview, Blagojevich attempted to draw similarities between her husband’s well-documented efforts to try to sell then-President-elect Barack Obama’s former Senate seat and the breaking revelations about federal investigators’ probe into Trump’s inaugural committee. “It’s a very dirty business when these prosecutors, with their unchecked power and no oversight at all, can go after any politician,” Patricia Blagojevich argued.

Before being sent to prison, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois Legislature for trying to sell gubernatorial appointments, including Obama’s Senate seat. “I’ve got this thing, and it’s fucking golden. I’m not going to give it up for nothing,” he said of the seat, as captured on a later released FBI wiretap.

Patricia Blagojevich has been crusading for Trump to issue her husband a pardon; in May, Trump hinted that he’s considering commuting his sentence. If Trump were to do so, it would make the former Illinois governor only the most recent of several political figures—including former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and conservative commentator Dinesh D’Sousa—to be granted clemency by the president.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate