Presidential Pardons and Rod Blagojevich

Victoria Polinski, Lenses Writer

Rod Blagojevich was the 40th Governor of Illinois, holding office from 2003 until his impeachment, conviction and subsequent removal from office in 2009. When he was impeached and removed from office for corruption. Blagojevich was arrested on December 9th 2008 and housed in a federal jail in Colorado. Blagojevich was conspirisized to have committed several “pay-to-play” schemes, one including Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat after Obama was elected president in 2008. Rod Blagojevich was convicted and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Additionally, the House and Senate have emphasized that he abused his power. 

One person mainly helped Blagojevich get out of prison early. This was United States President Donald Trump and he commuted his sentence on Tuesday. Trump told reporters that he thought that a fourteen-year prison term was ridiculous. He had already served eight years in prison. This left six years that he would have to continue if Trump did not commute his sentence. Should Rod Blagojevich have stayed in prison or should he go free?

It is hard to be on one side or the other if Blagojevich should have gotten out of prison early or not. Yes, fourteen years is a long time to be in jail, but if he committed the crime, it is appropriate. There isn’t really much evidence to say whether or not he actually committed this crime of corruption, obviously he was charged for it. While being interviewed at Joint Base Andrews, Trump suggested that Blagojevich’s wife Patti helped cement his decision while saying, “he served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him.” This stated that Donald Trump doesn’t actually know Rod Blagojevich, so he would not know if he really is a good person and would have committed this crime. Blagojevich does not actually have a reason to commute his sentence, based on the facts.