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Trump Explains Blagojevich Pardon: ‘I Watched His Wife’ On Fox News

Posted by Ellen -7859.80pc on February 18, 2020 · Flag

The long Fox News campaign of Rod Blagojevich’s wife urging Donald Trump to pardon her husband finally paid off for the couple today. “Seemed like a very nice person, don’t know him,” Trump said about the guy whose sentence he commuted today, “I watched his wife on television.”

Blagojevich was ultimately convicted on 17 of  20 corruption charges. Media Matters explains:

Some involved soliciting bribes in exchange for the U.S. Senate seat vacated upon President Barack Obama’s inauguration, while others dealt with schemes in which he demanded campaign donations in exchange for signing racetrack legislation, approving a transportation project, and approving funding for doctors at a hospital. After exhausting the appeals process, he sought to rehabilitate himself by claiming he had been the victim of overzealous investigators and prosecutors. 

Blagojevich’s team followed in the footsteps of other would-be pardon-seekers by pursuing a Fox-centric PR strategy. His wife, Patti Blagojevich, made the rounds on Fox beginning in April 2018, appearing at least seven times on the network’s programming to date. She received a sympathetic platform from Fox hosts including Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Martha MacCallum, and Jeanine Pirro. These segments were not subtle -- Carlson asked her directly, “If you could speak to the president, what would you say?” And as she responded, the caption “Will Trump intervene in Blagojevich case?” flashed across the screen.

Apparently, seeing Patti Blagojevich on his favorite TV shows, made a bigger impression on Trump than the guy he pardoned. Speaking after the pardon, Trump said, “I watched his wife on television. I don’t know him very well. I met him a couple of times. He was on for a short while on The Apprentice years ago. Seemed like a very nice person, don’t know him.” Blagojevich was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice in 2010, while he was awaiting trial.

Trump also falsely claimed that Blagojevich had been prosecuted by James Comey.

Trump surely gave great consideration to the details of the Blagojevich case before commuting his sentence – not. Other than the wife and Comey grudge, Trump said Blagojevich “served eight years in jail, there’s a long time to go, many people disagree with the sentence … Very far from his children. They’re growing older, they’re going to high school now and they rarely get to see their father outside of an orange uniform. I saw that and I did commute his sentence.”

Watch the corruption below, via Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz.

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"I watched his wife on television" Trump says of Blagojevich, in a nod to the successful campaign to obtain executive clemency via Fox appearances (she made at least 7 on the network since April 2018). https://t.co/9PqoPFINKy pic.twitter.com/Qw5AtP3SAj

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 18, 2020

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truman commented 2020-02-19 12:15:49 -0500 · Flag
DOJ has a very comprehensive pardon process. Applicants are vetted extensively and recommendations from prosecutors are sought. All the work is wasted on Mango Mussolini. He won’t read even a one-page executive summary nor sit through a 15-minute DOJ briefing. Just feed him a biased, one-sided Fux&Friends five-minute interview and he’s ready to act.
Bemused commented 2020-02-19 03:03:29 -0500 · Flag
When I thought the WH couldn’t go any further down, it does. Trump and Blagoievitch are clearly cut from the same cloth, so I can understand that move. I do wonder, however, what the other cases may represent in terms of skeletons in Trump’s closet: all sorts of fraud, lying where lying is a crime (ironic, that one, considering that Clinton was impeached for lying about a blow job), taking bribes (e.g. expensive renovations to one’s home, solliciting bids for a vacant political seat).

Have to disagree with you, EOF: he’ll never go jump in a lake at the behest of F&F. More likely he’ll accuse Comey (or Obama) of getting F&F to make that request.
Eyes On Fox commented 2020-02-18 23:22:35 -0500 · Flag
I await the day Fox & Friends tells Trump to jump in a lake. He’ll do it on cue.
John McKee commented 2020-02-18 18:46:17 -0500 · Flag
Trump has a ‘cunning plan’ to pardon random do-badders, something he imagines will boost his tough-hombre-scofflaw image with the knuckle-draggers (think Arpaio and those militia meatheads), but I’m pretty sure he won’t ever do the same for his co-conspirators. They become a threat to him if they are called to testify (which they surely will be) and have no recourse to the old 5th Amendment trick.

Stone is a special case though – it’s a matter of balancing the danger he poses as a future potential witness to all Trump’s skullduggery or the almost equal chance that if he ISN’T pardoned, he’ll go all-out for revenge against the ‘friend’ who betrayed him. Just maybe, it may become a case for the Epstein treatment – dear Vladimir could help with that one.








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