By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) The brother of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is thanking President Donald Trump, one day after Trump announced that he is considering commuting the ex-Governor’s prison sentence.
Robert Blagojevich told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” on WLS that Trump’s announcement was good news.
“I was shocked, and immediately very excited about the possibilities but cautiously optimistic. If President Trump were gracious enough to either commute Rod’s sentence or pardon him, that would be an incredibly generous act.”
Robert Blagojevich worked on his brother’s campaign. Both men were charged with corruption in 2008 but prosecutors eventually dropped charges against Robert, after a first trial in which jurors were not able to reach a verdict.
The elder Blagojevich, who is a businessman in Tennessee, criticized the Department of Justice and the FBI, and says he understands why Trump frequently criticizes both entities, in light of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has frequently accused the Justice Department and FBI of “a witch hunt”.
Mueller headed the FBI at the time the Blagojevich brothers were charged, while James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director one year ago, is a close friend of former Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office prosecuted the brothers.
“You’ve got overreaching zealots like Patrick Fitzgerald and others who are now in the news, who think they’re above it all” said Robert Blagojevich. “In my case the government put me on trial, cost me almost a million dollars and they cavalierly let me go after playing games with me and there’s no consequence to them for a misguided, wrong-directed prosecution that cost me a lot of money and no restitution for me and no accountability to them. It’s a threat to our civil liberties and we all ought to be concerned about the DOJ, the FBI, and unfettered unaccounted power.”
Robert Blagojevich told WLS that relations with his brother, which became strained during their shared legal ordeal, have not been repaired.
“It remains strained. I did go to Englewood Penitentiary where he is in Colorado in the fall of 2011 trying to see him, but I was told that I was not on the visitor’s list. Despite that I’ve continued to write to him from time to time. He’s my brother, I love him. We have issues. We have very different styles and approaches to problem-solving but he’s my brother and I want what’s best for him and his family.”
He says his brother Rod has never written him back.
Sheldon Sorosky, an attorney for Rod Blagojevich, told the Chicago Sun Times the family is hoping the ex-governor will be free in time to attend his daughter Amy’s graduation from Northwestern University on June 22nd.
