BREAKING: President Trump Issues Full and Unconditional Pardon for Rod Blagojevich

President Trump has signed a “full and unconditional” pardon for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Calling him a ‘very fine person’, the President signed the pardon, mentioning in the process that Blagojevich’s prison sentence should never have happened.

Moments ago, President Trump signs a full and unconditional pardon for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich… pic.twitter.com/goGySF3sEH

— Dan Scavino (@Scavino47) February 10, 2025

Convicted on charges that included trying to sell a Senate appointment to fill President Obama’s old seat, President Trump has often talked about how those who have sought his own political demise were in many cases the same people who unjustly came after Blagojevich.

A reporter asked President Trump if he would be considering Blagojevich for the Ambassadorship to Serbia, given that his farther was Serbian.

President Trump responded with a “No”, but emphasized that there was nothing stopping him from doing so — joking that the pardon made Blagojevich “cleaner” than anyone standing in the Oval Office!

🚨BREAKING: Trump signs a full an unconditional pardon for Rod Blagojevich, former Illinois Governor. "He was set up!"

REPORTER: "Are you considering him for ambassador to Serbia?"

TRUMP: "No, but I would. He's now cleaner than anyone in this room. He got a pardon." LMAO! 😂 pic.twitter.com/aqKxcFefsw

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) February 10, 2025

Here’s the full screen view as a backup:

President Trump talked about Blagojevich just prior to signing the pardon with an obvious and marked sense of emotion.

It seemed almost as if he took even more joy in issuing that pardon simply because he himself has had a visceral knowledge of what it’s like to have “those people” come after you, relentlessly.

He said outright that Blagojevich was “set up by a lot of bad people”, according to an Associated Press story on the pardon:

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose 14-year sentence for political corruption charges he commuted during his first term.

The Republican president called the Democratic former governor, who once appeared on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice,” “a very fine person” and said the conviction and prison sentence “shouldn’t have happened.”

“I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people I had to deal with,” Trump said at the White House as he signed the pardon.

Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on charges that included seeking to sell an appointment to then-President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. Blagojevich served eight years in prison before Trump cut short his term in 2020.

Blagojevich told reporters gathered outside his Chicago home on Monday that he was thankful.

“I’ll always be profoundly grateful to President Trump for everything he’s done for me and my family,” Blagojevich said. “It’s everlasting gratitude. He’s a great guy.”

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At the time that Trump announced Blagojevich’s commutation in 2020, Trump had been investigated for his ties to Russia and their attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. The president made clear that he saw similarities between efforts to investigate his own conduct and those that took down Blagojevich.

“It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group,” Trump told reporters. He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and later represented former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired from the agency in May 2017. Comey was working in the private sector during the Blagojevich investigation and indictment.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the investigation into ties between between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.

According to the Restoration of Rights Project, a pardon typically removes the bar to certain civil rights, including voting, serving on a jury, running for public office, owning a gun and retaining certain licenses.

The state Supreme Court revoked Blagojevich’s law license, however, an outcome a pardon can’t reverse, according to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.

Roger Stone, a long-time supporter and defender of President Trump and Rod Blagojevich during the Russian collusion hoax and other lawfare investigations against each, posted this picture earlier today.

🚨BREAKING: President Donald Trump pardons lawfare victim Governor Rod Blagojevich—clearing the way for a Blagojevich bid for Mayor of Chicago. pic.twitter.com/eCMkFoZBr6

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) February 10, 2025

I don’t know if that counts for a campaign announcement, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trump-loyalist Rod Blagojevich sitting in the Chicago Mayor’s office with his name on the door sometime in the future!

And as journalist Mario Nawfal pointed out on X, this isn’t the first time President Trump has intervened on Blagojevich’s behalf.

🚨🇺🇸BREAKING: TRUMP ISSUES FULL PARDON FOR ROD BLAGOJEVICH

Trump has granted a full, unconditional pardon to Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor convicted in 2011 for corruption—including trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

This marks the second time Trump has… pic.twitter.com/sQtot4DCb0

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 10, 2025

As Nawfal posted, President Trump commuted the 14-year sentence Blagojevich was serving during his first term in office

Blagojevich, a democrat, told fellow democrats at the time that they should “put their country above your hatred for Trump” — proving that he was ahead of the curve that really took shape a few months ago when democrats started to hemorrhage voters leaving the party in droves in favor of President Trump.

He joked at the time that he was a ‘Trumpocrat’ upon his release, according to a story back in 2020 from Fox News:

After leaving prison Tuesday, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich expressed his “everlasting gratitude” to President Trump who commuted his 14-year corruption sentence.

Blagojevich, who served eight years behind bars in Colorado, jokingly called himself a “Trumpocrat,” saying the president “saw a wrong and corrected it.”

Trump said the punishment imposed on the Chicago Democrat and one-time contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” was excessive. “So he’ll be able to go back home with his family,” he said. “That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others.”

Blagojevich was convicted in his second trial in 2011 on 18 counts, including trying to sell former President Obama’s old Senate seat. His first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict, except for a single conviction, for lying to the FBI.

And if you really want the full incredible story of how the same corrupt democrats who came after President Trump also came after Blagojevich — trying to blur the line on what is criminal or even actionable under the law — watch this.

Blagojevich lays out in this interview with Tucker Carlson just a few months ago the full story of what he endured at the hands of the same people who weaponized the system against President Trump in identical ways.

I don’t know if Blagojevich identifies himself as a democrat or republican at this point.

But after hearing that interview, the details of how his own party attacked him, listening to him talk at length about what happened — I would probably give the man my vote for Mayor of Chicago.

And if I lived there… I might even vote more than once, if I could get away with it.

Which — considering we’re talking about Chicago — I probably could.