A former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich jailed for corruption has been pardoned by United States President Donald Trump.
It was gathered that Democrat Blagojevich was removed from his governor’s seat in 2009 and later convicted of essentially attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after the latter won the U.S. presidency in 2008.
“It was sort of a terrible injustice. They just went after him; they go after a lot of people. These are bad people on the other side,” Trump told reporters as he signed the pardon in the Oval Office.
“I think he’s a very fine person, and this shouldn’t have happened.”
Media had reported that Trump was considering Blagojevich for the position of U.S. ambassador to Serbia.
However, Trump said: “No, but I would. He’s now cleaner than anybody in this room.”
Back in 2020, Trump was vague about his reasoning for freeing Blagojevich, who had been sentenced to 14 years.
“He served eight years in jail. He has a long time to go. Many people disagree with the sentence,” Trump told reporters.
Recall that Trump had already exercised the U.S. president’s wide-ranging powers to issue pardons on numerous occasions since he returned to power on January 20.
The president pardoned some 1,500 people accused of involvement in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack immediately after his inauguration.
He has also pardoned two dozen anti-abortion protesters.
