Trump Released An Unreconstructed Criminal, As Though Chicago Doesn't Have Enough Crime Already!

Earlier today we glanced, briefly at DINOs Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY) and Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT) and you may have wondered which of the two is most likely to be the next Jeff Van Drew, formerly a DCCC-Blue Dog and now a Trump-Republican. But there already is a next Jeff Van Drew. Who remembers Rod Blagojevich?

Blagojevich was a state Rep and then a 3-term conservaDem, pro-war Congressman from Chicago. In 2002 he was elected governor of Illinois where his life-long corruption really blossomed. He was arrested at his home by FBI agents in 2008 and charged with trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat when Obama was elected president. He was impeached the following month (114-1 with 3 abstentions). In 2011 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Last week Trump, who knew him as a guest on The Apprentice and as a corrupt governor he had contributed to, commuted the rest of his sentence and he was immediately released from prison.

Chicago Tribune has already noted that he's now a full-on Trumpist. Stacy St. Clair and Annie Sweeney wrote last week that Blagojevich stood in front of TV camera and declared himself a political prisoner finally home from eight years of exile. His former Lt Governor, Pat Quinn, who went on to be governor when Blagojevich was impeached, told the reporters he was upset with "the pronounced self-pity, the lack of contrition and, perhaps more than anything, the audacity to discuss criminal justice reform. Quinn inherited a backlog of nearly 3,000 clemency petitions when he took over from Blagojevich, who largely shirked his responsibility to review requests for commutations and pardons. The situation became so dire at one point, Cabrini Green Legal Aid sued Blagojevich to get him to act on their requests. 'It is ironic that someone who didn’t care about those people waiting for an answer, or the families waiting for them at home, was the beneficiary of a commutation,' Quinn said. 'There was no remorse. There was no contrition. What we saw was disgraceful.' In his winding 'homecoming' speech and various media interviews since having his sentence commuted Tuesday by President Donald Trump, Blagojevich has woven a web of half-truths and, to critics, hypocrisies around his newly found freedom. He has promoted unfounded conspiracy theories, attacked his former prosecutors and downplayed his own criminal behavior. And as he has been since the moment of his arrest, Blagojevich remains unrepentant. If anything, a lengthy incarceration has only strengthened his belief that he is the victim of political corruption and not the perpetrator."

He also seems emboldened by Trump’s bombastic style, which drastically changed the political and cultural landscape while Blagojevich was behind bars. That new reality allows for hurling allegations regardless of their veracity, excoriating perceived opponents in the media and often shouting down the truth.

Some are more qualified than others to see through the former governor’s effort to rewrite the history books.

“It’s strange, because if anyone knows about his guilt, it’s Rod Blagojevich," said James Matsumoto, the jury foreman at his first criminal trial. "He heard the evidence at two trials. He has to know what he did was criminal.”

...“I’m returning home today from a long exile a freed political prisoner,” he told the media Wednesday from the stoop of his Chicago house. “I want to say again to the people of Illinois who twice elected me governor: I didn’t let you down. I would have let you down if I gave in to this. But resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”

Looking older and significantly grayer since his incarceration, Blagojevich spent his first days of freedom trying to restore a tarnished legacy. He showed no interest in a thoughtful debate about the appropriate punishment for his misdeeds, but rather he appeared determined to re-litigate his case.

Blagojevich’s argument begins with the incorrect assertion that the same people who took him down have also tried to unseat Trump. It’s an easily disproved accusation that Trump also pushed when announcing Blagojevich’s commutation Tuesday morning, and on Twitter the following day.

“He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price. Another Comey and gang deal!” the president tweeted Wednesday.

Former FBI Director James Comey was U.S. deputy attorney general when the investigation into Blagojevich’s administration began, but he moved to the private sector in 2005 and played no role in Blagojevich’s arrest in 2008. Blagojevich had been in prison for more than a year when Comey assumed the FBI’s top post.

Blagojevich’s prosecution was overseen by Patrick Fitzgerald, then U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Fitzgerald did not have any role in the Mueller investigation, though he has been representing Comey, a longtime friend, since Trump fired him in May 2017.

It is true that Robert Mueller was the FBI director at the time of Blagojevich’s arrest by agents in the FBI’s Chicago office. But then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a George W. Bush appointee and frequent Trump defender, made the decision to tap the governor’s phones.

The facts, however, haven’t stopped Blagojevich from pushing the idea that he and Trump were targeted by mutual enemies.

“This is the larger fight that is before all of us as Americans,” Blagojevich said on FOX News Wednesday. “Some of these same people again have tried to do at the Major League-level to a Republican president what they were able successfully to do to a Democratic governor. And they are threatening to take away from all of us our rights to choose our own leaders through free and fair elections.”

The assertion defies both time and logic, said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer, who worked under Fitzgerald.

“Everyone is trying to morph those facts,” Cramer said. “These prosecutors who investigated and convicted Blagojevich have been out of the (U.S. Department of Justice) for about 10 years. And the president is making some sort of twisted connect-the-dots between Jim Comey and Rod Blagojevich? When you have to go through these legal gymnastics, maybe the best answer is the most simple one, which is Rod Blagojevich is the poster child for public corruption in Illinois. And that is a pretty high bar.”

Randall Samborn, a lawyer and former longtime spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, including during the Blagojevich convictions, dismissed any suggestion that Fitzgerald or his prosecutors played any role in the Trump investigations.

And while Mueller was leading the FBI during the time of the Blagojevich investigation and prosecution, the practice at the time was to allow local teams of federal agents and prosecutors much more control-- unlike what is transpiring today in Washington, Samborn added.

“Local FBI agents and prosecutors had some degree of independent autonomy in conducting investigations and prosecutions, unlike the more recent reaching across the transom by (Department of Justice) officials that we’ve seen in recent weeks,” Samborn said.

The former governor complains that the “uncontrolled” prosecution team improperly applied federal law to railroad him, another claim that does not withstand scrutiny. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the evidence against Blagojevich “overwhelming” and upheld the conviction, while the U.S. Supreme Court twice refused to hear his arguments.

The Illinois Senate voted unanimously to remove him from office for abusing his power. The Illinois House also had widespread bipartisan support for his impeachment, with only Blagojevich’s sister-in-law, then-Rep. Deb Mell, D-Chicago, voting against it.

“For Rod Blagojevich to say somehow he is innocent is absurd," Cramer said. "And several courts and a jury thought it was absurd.”

As Blagojevich continues to disparage federal prosecutors, some worry about the damage his claims could cause. With several aldermen and state lawmakers currently under investigation or indictment for allegedly abusing their positions, the U.S. attorney’s office is once again proving itself to be one of the most reliable weapons in the fight against public corruption, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said.

...Both Blagojevich and Trump shrugged off his actions as normal political talk, glossing over the fact he was convicted of trying to shake down the former Children’s Memorial Hospital for a $25,000 campaign donation in exchange for more state funding for pediatric specialists. The former governor did not mention that specific allegation during his public remarks Wednesday, though he did tout his efforts to provide more affordable health care for children in Illinois.

On wiretaps played during his criminal trial, Blagojevich mentioned a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase worth up to $10 million and his desire to hit up hospital CEO Patrick Magoon for contributions in almost the same breath. The rate hike would have gone to pay doctors who were backlogged in treating children for asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and rheumatoid arthritis.

Children’s Memorial, which has since changed its name to Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said in 2008 that no one at the hospital participated in the scheme. They also issued a statement expressing disappointment that money to care for “Illinois’ neediest children has been tied to an alleged pay-for-play scheme.”

When asked about the scheme on FOX News, Blagojevich quickly retorted: “I actually sent that hospital $8 million."

The hospital received the state funding after Blagojevich was arrested.

The former governor appeared to be parroting arguments he raised in his post-trial appeals-- none of which succeeded to persuade any court that he didn’t try to extort Magoon.

“The hospital was pretty clear they were being shaken down,” Cramer said. “You have to laugh at the nerve. In the annals of public corruption, who shakes down a children’s hospital?”

Blagojevich had been scheduled to be released in March 2024. Instead, he finds himself back in Chicago and required to do community service until he finds a job. He has not said where he intends to seek employment, but he has expressed an interest in helping those who are wrongly incarcerated or serving unfair sentences.

“(Injustices) that not only destroyed their lives and steal from them their futures, but hurt their children and families,” Blagojevich lamented.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, keep in mind that Trump and his entire criminal family have been barred from ever operating a charity in New York State again, after a court found that Trump used his own charity to profit personally while ripping off a children's hospital. He was fined $2 million while his 3 crooked children, Don, Jr., Ivanka and Eric, were all forced to go to rehabilitation courses for crooks who steal from charities. New York Attorney General Leticia James:

The Trump Foundation has shut down, funds that were illegally misused are being restored, the president will be subject to ongoing supervision by my office, and the Trump children had to undergo compulsory training to ensure this type of illegal activity never takes place again. The court’s decision, together with the settlements we negotiated, are a major victory in our efforts to protect charitable assets and hold accountable those who would abuse charities for personal gain. My office will continue to fight for accountability because no one is above the law-- not a businessman, not a candidate for office, and not even the President of the United States.

Does that help you understand why Trump decided to free Blogojevich from prison? Still not? How about this post Sunday from Rev. John Pavlovitz, Why Do You Stand Behind Cruelty?, addressed to evangelical Trump supporters?

You are a mystery to me.

I watch you standing there with-wide-eyed, breathless adoration, and I simply can’t fathom how you ended up there in that spot, what it is you’re feeling in that moment, how this has become a voice you feel affinity with.

Why are you here?

I’d never stand behind someone who makes fun of stutterers.
I’d never stand behind someone who uses a person’s physical appearance as a slur.
I’d never stand behind someone who speaks about women as though they are things.
I’d never stand behind someone who mocks people with disabilities.
I’d never stand behind someone who exploits racial and ethnic stereotypes.

I’d never choose such a person as a friend, let alone choose them to make decisions regarding hundreds of millions of people or to represent me in the world or to shape the place my children call home-- and the reason has nothing at all to do with politics.

It’s a human decency thing.

I’d never do these things, because as a Christian I was raised to treat people with a dignity that I was taught they deserve as solely unique human beings fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of a God who was love.

I was raised to believe that I was fortunate to be born where I was born and with the advantages I have and surrounded by the love I was surrounded by and inside the healthy body I inhabited; and that I should remember that many people were not-- and that this makes life more difficult for them.

I was raised to look for the uncomfortable people on the periphery and to welcome them in: to make them feel seen and heard, to reduce the loneliness they experience, to help them feel less isolated than they usually do.

I was taught to defend bullied people, to befriend the vulnerable, and to extend kindness in way that makes someone else’s load lighter-- because life is heavy and it’s difficult on its best day. I was taught that compassion is the better path (or in plain language, not to be a jerk.)

What were you taught that was different than that?

I also grew up knowing that you can’t believe one thing while saying another; that your actions ultimately declare what you value despite what you claim to value with words; that if your personal faith is never tangibly embodied in your daily life-- it is simply a showy, dressed up corpse.

As an adult, I’ve interpreted this to mean that your politics reveal who you are: that you vote for people you agree with, who reflect your heart, who share your values, who speak for you-- people who in some significant way embody you. What is about him that you feel a kindred spirit with when you hear him speak?

Our politics aren’t some detached entities that exist separated from our moral convictions and our personal values-- they are direct extensions of them. We choose human beings to represent us in the world, who do and say what we would do and say if we had the power and position they have.

I really wonder why you’ve chosen this man to speak for you.
I wonder what about the slurs and the taunts and the nicknames and the expletives and the viciousness feels congruent with the way you see the world.
I wonder what vicarious impulse you express through him when he provokes people he has power over, especially when they are at their most vulnerable.
I wonder how the continual stream of vengeful attacks on already marginalized communities gives voice to something you harbor in the deepest recesses of your heart.
I wonder why this hatred is something you feel solidarity with.

For some reason, you stand proudly behind cruelty.
You cheer it on when it generates pain for people.
You laugh when it makes jokes at the expense of other’s misery.
You amen its ever-lowering bottom.
You applaud when it strains wildly to outdo itself in falsehoods.

Only you know why you do that.

What does it say about your understanding of Jesus?
What does it echo about the way you see people?

What does it say about the fear that you fight every day to push back?
What does it reveal about your value of those who don’t look or speak or love or believe the way you do?

Try as I might, I simply can’t understand it from where I’m standing.

Tell me why you stand behind cruelty.

OK, all clear now?