Blagojevich , Rod gov
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ed martin?
he was on aPPRENTICE, WEAPONIZ VICTIM LIKE ME LIE GASLIGHT ~ FBI
MARALAGO MAFIA GRENELL SERBIA CORRUPT GOLF KIDS
democrat
pardon, pension?
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no pix lnx
US President Donald Trump's trio for the Balkans
Alexander Rhotert
02/18/2025February 18, 2025
President Trump's new team for the Balkans includes some familiar faces with close ties to Serbia: son-in-law Jared Kushner, former special envoy Richard Grenell and ex-governor Rod Blagojevich.
https://p.dw.com/p/4qdGO
Two men (Richard Grenell and Donald Trump) in blue suits stand in front of a US flag. Between them and the flag is a large blue banner with the words 'Protect our food from China' and 'Protecting America Initiative,' which are only partially visible
Richard Grenell (left) and Donald Trump at an event in Philadelphia in September 2024Image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon/picture alliance
The first weeks of Donald J. Trump's second presidency have shown that The New York Times hit the nail on the head with its Inauguration Day headline: "The Deal Maker in Chief Is Back."
Trump's foreign policy also seems to show that his beloved "deals" will remain a dominant theme of his second administration.
There have already been three indications of this: The US is willing to continue sending military aid to Ukraine in return for access to its reserves of raw materials such as rare earths and lithium, the "takeover" of the Gaza Strip to create a "Riviera of the Middle East," and — a Trump classic — a "Trump Tower" in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
The first attempt to get this last project off the ground stalled in 2012. The fact that construction is now about to begin 13 years later is largely due to Trump's close adviser, Richard "Ric" Grenell.
Grenell was special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations during the first Trump administration, and Trump recently named him presidential envoy for special missions.
Trump Tower No. 5
Grenell has close — almost friendly — relations with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, a former Serbian ambassador to the US.
Vucic even presented Grenell with the Order of the Serbian Flag in 2023 in recognition of his "balanced approach" to Europe's youngest state, the Republic of Kosovo, which Serbia still claims as part of its territory 26 years after the end of the Kosovo War.
The Trump Tower Belgrade deal — which, according to The New York Times, comes with a price tag of half a billion dollars — was concluded by the Serbian government, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Arab investors in March 2024.
A man in a blue suit (Richard Grenell) holds a box containing an order. Beside him is a taller man (Aleksandar Vucic). The two men are standing in front of a row of flagsA man in a blue suit (Richard Grenell) holds a box containing an order. Beside him is a taller man (Aleksandar Vucic). The two men are standing in front of a row of flags
Grenell (left) received the Order of the Serbian Flag from Serbian President Vucic (right) in Belgrade on October 25, 2023Image: Darko Vojinovic/dpa/picture alliance
The plan is to turn the former headquarters of the Armed Forces of Serbia (then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) into a hotel complex with luxury apartments, including a memorial to the victims of the NATO bombardment of Belgrade in 1999, during which the building was damaged.
After New York, Chicago, Manila and Istanbul, this would be the fifth Trump Tower worldwide.
'The perfect man for Belgrade'
On February 7, Politico reported that Trump was considering making Rod "Blago" Blagojevich US ambassador to Serbia. The former Democratic governor of Illinois is a colorful political figure — even by Trump's standards.
Blagojevich, the son of Serbian immigrants, was removed from office in 2009 and sentenced three years later to 14 years in prison for corruption.
When Trump commuted his sentence during his first term in office, Blagojevich was released from prison in 2020.
A man (Rod Blagojevich) wearing a black coat and a gray roll-neck sweater looks past the cameraA man (Rod Blagojevich) wearing a black coat and a gray roll-neck sweater looks past the camera
Rod 'Blago' Blagojevich is being touted as the next US ambassador to SerbiaImage: Vincent Alban/REUTERS
This makes the Democrat an ideal ally for the Republican president, says Daniel Serwer, Balkans expert at Johns Hopkins University and US Balkans negotiator under former US President Bill Clinton. "Blago is the perfect man for Belgrade: a profoundly corrupt politician who will be willing to do anything Trump wants to be rehabilitated," Serwer told DW.
Trump popular with Serbs — at home and abroad
After his removal from office, Blagojevich appeared on Donald Trump's show "The Celebrity Apprentice" in 2010.
When Trump was nominated presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, Blagojevich and Grenell made several electoral appearances together, especially in parts of the USA with large Serbian communities, where Trump had high approval ratings — as he did among nationalist Serbian politicians in Serbia and in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, which also have Serbian communities.
A US coastguard boat with a gun on the front sails past a residence with peach-colored walls surrounded by palm trees. There is a large American flag in the grounds of the residenceA US coastguard boat with a gun on the front sails past a residence with peach-colored walls surrounded by palm trees. There is a large American flag in the grounds of the residence
According to a businessman who attended an event at Mar-a-Lago (pictured here), Trump called Blagojevich a 'great friend' and 'close associate'Image: Jen Golbeck/picture alliance/Sipa USA
In early 2024, five US businessmen with Serbian roots attended a reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. One of them was Ranko Ristic, founder of the company Zastava Arms USA, which has the exclusive right to import to the US firearms produced by the Serbian company Zastava Oruzje.
According to Ristic, Trump referred to Blagojevich during the event as a "great friend" and "close associate." Ristic said that he himself had told Trump that during the 1991–95 Bosnian War, Bosnian Serbs had had to defend themselves against 3,000 mujahedeen.
Criticism of Kosovo's prime minister
Blagojevich met President Vucic in Belgrade in early February. During his visit, he was highly critical in the media of Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti, saying that Serbs in Kosovo were the target of "ethnic cleansing" that was taking place there.
In 1999, the USA and other NATO countries bombarded Serbia to force it to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which was then part of Serbia, to prevent the expulsion of the majority ethnic Albanian population from the province.
25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
05:06
Blagojevich apologized to Vucic for the USA's involvement in this intervention in the Kosovo War. "My country did a terrible thing to your country in the 1990s," Trump's potential ambassador to Serbia told Vucic, adding: "It's no different from what Russia is doing in Ukraine (...) I think President Trump will work on improving our countries' relations."
Trump's confidant Grenell has also criticized Kosovo's Prime Minister Kurti on multiple occasions. In addition, he met with an archenemy of Kurti, former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, in Washington the day before Trump's inauguration.
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According to a post by KosovoOnline on X, Haradinaj said that Grenell had confirmed to him that it would "not be good for Kosovo if Kurti remains in power."
Kurti has been in Grenell's bad books since 2020 when he rejected an ethnically motivated exchange of territory between Kosovo and Serbia proposed by Grenell. Kurti's Vetevendosje party won Kosovo's parliamentary election on February 9.
More radical rhetoric on Kosovo
These developments, which are extremely positive for Vucic, stand in stark contrast to the mass protests that have been rocking Serbia since early November.
In recent weeks, the Serbian president's rhetoric regarding Kosovo has taken a more radical turn, undoubtedly to divert attention from his obvious domestic problems.
In an interview with the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric referred to Kosovo as "our southern province," where Serbs were exposed to "permanent discrimination and harassment."
A man (Albin Kurti) dressed in a dark green winter coat smiles broadly as he speaks into a microphoneA man (Albin Kurti) dressed in a dark green winter coat smiles broadly as he speaks into a microphone
The party of Albin Kurti (pictured here) won the parliamentary election in Kosovo on February 9Image: Florion Goga/REUTERS
Milan Mojsilovic, chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, told the Serbian daily newspaper Vecernje novosti that Serbia's armed forces were at the ready to "protect Serbs and other non-Albanians on the territory of our southern province." There were, he said, "indicators for potential destabilization" in Kosovo.
Vucic, who has in the past referred to Kurti as "terrorist scum," described him recently on Serbia's Happy TV as a "villain" who "hates Serbs."
What does this mean for Bosnia?
Kurt Bassuener, director of the Berlin think tank Democratization Policy Council, told DW that Greater Serbian aspirations pose a threat not only to the territorial integrity of Kosovo but also to that of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The EU could, he said, respond to Belgrade's aggression toward its neighbors by "significantly beefing up" the EUFOR Althea mission, which protects peace in Bosnia, with combat troops.
Were this to happen, a US-Balkan team comprising Grenell, Kushner and Blagojevich — including a direct line to the White House — would be a gift for Belgrade. It would also mean that an improvement in Serbia-Kosovo relations — already unlikely as it is — would slip further away.
A large crowd fills a square in Nis, Serbia. Several people are holding up Serbian flags A large crowd fills a square in Nis, Serbia. Several people are holding up Serbian flags
Protests have been taking place across Serbia at regular intervals since last NovemberImage: Jelena Djukic Pejic/DW
The EU responded in 2023 to the last Kosovo Serb attacks on NATO and Kosovo security forces and a Serb military buildup on the Serbia-Kosovo border with sanctions — paradoxically, against Kosovo.
It was only the personal intervention of the then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke to President Vucic, and the enormous pressure exerted by NATO that were able to get Serbian tanks to turn back.
Today, both Western Balkans experts Serwer and Bassuener doubt that the US would stop Vucic's army should the worst come to the worst. Serwer also warns that even the discussion of the breakup of Kosovo or Ukraine would animate Serbian secessionists in Bosnia to take corresponding action.
"It will be up to Bosnians to react to that," Serwer told DW. "The Javelins are Kosovo's best defense at this point." Without the delivery of the highly effective US Javelin anti-tank weapon system, Ukraine's successful resistance to Russia's all-out invasion in 2022 would have been inconceivable.
In view of the current security policy situation, an escalation of potential conflicts in the Western Balkans is certainly becoming increasingly likely.
This article was originally published in German.
Head shot of a man (Alexander Rhotert) with glasses in front of a pale wallHead shot of a man (Alexander Rhotert) with glasses in front of a pale wall
Alexander Rhotert Political scientist, author and expert on the Western Balkans
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nbc
trump's pardons highlight Justice Department's pullback from public corruption cases
Former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins claimed he was being targeted because of his support for Donald Trump.
May 28, 2025,
WASHINGTON — The government's evidence against Scott Jenkins was compelling, including undercover video and other corroboration showing Jenkins, then the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, accepting over $75,000 in exchange for giving law enforcement authority to local businessmen, as well as two undercover FBI special agents.
Jenkins’ co-defendants all pleaded guilty, and jurors didn't take long to convict Jenkins last year, deliberating for around two hours before they found him guilty on all counts. When Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia said he "violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme."
But on Monday, President Donald Trump announced he was pardoning Jenkins, calling him "a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice" who "doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail." It's part of a broader pattern for Trump, who in the first few months of his second term has pardoned at least four supportive former public officials who were convicted of financial improprieties.
Trump, who faced two separate federal criminal cases that were dropped after he was re-elected in November, has long argued that he was a victim of the weaponization of the Justice Department and the FBI, and he has been sympathetic to those who make similar claims, particularly those who are politically aligned with him.
:{In February, Trump pardoned Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic former governor of Illinois, whose sentence he had commuted in 2020, after he was convicted on corruption charges related to bribery.:{ (Blagojevich attended the 2024 Republican convention in support of Trump.)}: Trump pardoned Republicanformer Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey in March, just over two weeks into a 21-month sentence over a campaign finance-related fraud conviction.
(Fellow Tennessee Republicans implored Trump to pardon Kelsey, who thanked him upon his release from prison and said that “God used Donald Trump to save me.”) Last month, Trump pardoned Republican former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore, who had been set to be sentenced this month after she was convicted on conspiracy and wire fraud charges related to misused fundraising. (Fiore had hitched her political career to Trump and benefited from his endorsement while she backed his false statements about voter fraud in the 2020 election.)}:
Those four figures and their pardons aren't the only evidence of a Justice Department de-emphasizing public corruption cases. In the early days of the administration, the Justice Department also dropped a campaign finance case against Republican former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, who had been set to go on trial next month.
The Trump administration also moved to drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, which led several Justice Department officials to resign in protest.
The Adams and Jenkins cases, among others, are linked by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. The division, which focuses on bringing cases against public officials accused of breaking the law, has shrunk in both size and influence during the Trump administration. The FBI's Washington Field Office is shutting down a public corruption squad that was focused on federal corruption.
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“It’s clear that this administration doesn’t believe that tamping down on public corruption is a priority,” said Stacey Young, a former Justice Department official who founded Justice Connection, a network of Justice Department alumni formed in response to the Trump administration's overhaul of the Justice Department. “Pardoning a sheriff who took cash for deputy badges is just the latest in a string of actions this president has taken to undermine any effort to hold officials accountable to the public they are sworn to serve.”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
'Make Virginia Great Again'
It's not clear how the Jenkins case first made its way on the White House's radar, but it found a backer in Ed Martin, the conservative activist whom Trump initially put in charge of the U.S. attorney's office in Washington before he recently named him the U.S. pardon attorney. Martin wrote on X that he was “thrilled” the Jenkins’ was the first pardon since he took the position: “Congratulations, Sheriff Jenkins: Do great things and make us proud.”
In a thread in which he thanked Trump for pardoning Jenkins, Martin — who is also director of the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group — wrote, “No MAGA left behind.”
Last week, Martin met with White House “pardon czar” Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence for a drug conviction Trump commuted during his first term. Trump later gave Johnson a full pardon.
In an interview with Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump that aired on Fox News this month, she would review the cases of people who spent too much time behind bars, as well as “the victims of lawfare, the same way our president was.”
A Justice Department official said that Martin was eager to get involved in the Jenkins case after meetings with the White House and that he concurred with and supported Trump's decision to issue a pardon.
Jenkins had argued that he was targeted because of his conservative politics, including his positions on immigration, guns and Covid lockdowns. In his own sentencing memo, Jenkins’ lawyers said he "adamantly maintains his innocence."
When Jenkins was under investigation, he and other sheriffs discussed the possibility of "flying to a secret location to view the Hunter Biden laptop, and then bringing charges against Hunter Biden based on any crimes depicted on it," his lawyers wrote in the sentencing memo.
The government said Jenkins perjured himself at trial, falsely testifying that co-defendant Rick Rahim had given him a "business investment" because Jenkins had copyrighted the logo "Make Virginia Great Again" and that they were investing in red shirts and hats. Discussions about "Make America Great Again" shirts didn't happen until after Rahim had made payments to Jenkins, which were intended to help him get his firearms rights restored, prosecutors argued.
Last week, prosecutors asked a judge to sentence Rahim, who pleaded guilty, to 27 months in prison, saying Jenkins made Rahim a "Helicopter Pilot" in exchange for bribes and pushed his petition for restoration of gun rights even though Rahim didn't live in the county.
Prosecutors said recordings captured Jenkins laying out the scheme in clear terms after he became frustrated that Rahim was pushing for more favors.
“I appreciate what support you give me, but you didn’t do it for nothin’. You got a felony record, a clean slate to carry — not only carry a gun,” Jenkins said in a recorded conversation in 2022, according to a court filing. “We followed it up with swearing you in. Name another sheriff in the whole State of Virginia that would do that.”
An attorney for Jenkins didn’t respond to a request for comment, and a message left at a phone number registered to Jenkins got no response.
Meanwhile, more pardons for Trump supporters may be in the pipeline.
On Tuesday, Trump called two of the children of reality television couple Todd and Julie Chrisley and told them their parents would receive pardons for bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. One of their daughters, reality star Savannah Chrisley, spoke on their behalf at the Republican National Convention last year and more recently appeared on a Fox News segment with Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
"When I saw, obviously, what the president was going through, what I was going through, it was eerily similar," Savannah Chrisley said in the interview.
Martin recently met with attorney Peter Ticktin, who presented pardon applications for members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as first reported by Politico. While most Jan. 6 defendants got full pardons, Trump initially commuted the sentences of some of the members of the two far-right groups, ending their prison sentences but maintaining the convictions and the collateral consequences — like deprivation of certain rights — that go along with them.
“There’s a good deal of reason to be hopeful,” Ticktin, who went to the New York Military Academy with Trump, told NBC News. “No promises were made as to what would be done; that’s not the way it works. We present it and then we hope for the best."
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
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NO LNX AN
'Not good!' Senator laughs at Republican colleague's Trump admin defense
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C., Gage Skidmore
Sarah Burris,Matt Laslo andRaw Story February 12, 2025
WASHINGTON — Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth cracked up talking about President Donald Trump's pardon of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who was convicted of 18 corruption charges, including an effort to sell Barack Obama's senate seat after he was elected in 2008.
Raw Story discussed the matter with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) when Duckworth overheard the conversation and began laughing.
"Yeah, I've seen interviews. It sounds to me like it was also a politically motivated prosecution," Johnson said after talking about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who had corruption charges dropped against him.
ALSO READ: 'Crazy calls have started': J6 committee members flooded with threats after Trump pardons
"A convicted felon pardoning another convicted felon?" Duckworth asked. "That's all I gotta say."
"It's not good for anybody. It's not good for the country," she continued.
Duckworth added that she doesn't think anything could be done about it, but they could "ask the Supreme Court."
"Ask Susan Collins. She put some of those on the Supreme Court," she said.
Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but Trump commuted his sentence in February 2025, and he served nearly eight years.
see abc disney //
an 12 24
President-elect Donald Trump has been spending a bulk of his presidential transition less focused on putting together a governing agenda and more focused on an aggressive campaign of legal intimidation. Now, one of his supporters has identified his next potential target.
Politico is reporting that former Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich — who endorsed Trump in 2024 after receiving a pardon from him in 2020 — is calling on the president-elect to zero in on current Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Blagojevich tweeted that Trump should pursue the Illinois governor using the same tactic he successfully used against ABC News in a separate defamation lawsuit.
“Now that Trump successfully won his defamation case against ABC for calling him a ‘rapist,’ when will he sue Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for repeatedly lying & calling him the same thing?” Blagojevich wrote on X.
READ MORE:'Open season': Experts slam Trump's 'disgusting' lawsuit against Iowa newspaper and pollster
In a June tweet, Pritzer called Trump "a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and a congenital liar." He added that then-candidate Trump was "a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him." Blagojevich's tweet may be a reference to that statement, or his comments in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump this summer, when he said the fact that Trump narrowly dodged a bullet didn't change the fact that he was "a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist."
The incoming president is fresh off of a legal victory in which ABC News agreed to make a $15 million contribution to Trump's presidential library fund in addition to another $1 million in legal expenses in order to settle with Trump over his defamation claim. The lawsuit was filed in response to ABC host George Stephanopoulos saying Trump was found guilty of "rape" in a 2023 verdict in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll. The actual verdict wasn't for rape, but for "sexual abuse."
In a subsequent filing, Judge Lewis F. Kaplan clarified that "sexual abuse" was essentially the same thing as "rape" as the average person understands it, and that Trump was indeed guilty. He was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million for sexual abuse, and then another $83.3 million for defaming her when falsely asserting that she made the story up for financial benefit.
Trump has also filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and retired pollster Ann Selzer for a poll that falsely predicted Vice President Kamala Harris would win Iowa by three points. Trump argued that the poll was a form of election interference, even though he ended up winning Iowa by a double-digit margin.
READ MORE:Trump calls for 'dishonest' ABC News to lose license following debate fact-check
*Click here to read Politico's report in full.
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newsweek
Trump has spent most of his political career asserting that the Department of Justice — even when it was his administration in power — was being weaponized against him.
When Trump criticized then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Russian interference investigation in 2017, he declared there was a "witch hunt" being executed against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That language became more explicit after Trump left office in 2021, and more frequent as the criminal prosecutions against him unfurled.
By the time Republicans took control of the House in 2023, the accusations of "lawfare" were part of the Trump brand. His congressional allies put former Representative Kevin McCarthy in a bind demanding he allow for the creation of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government or risk the speakership.
But Rod Blagojevich told Newsweek, "It all started with me."
Former Illinois governor and convicted felon Rod Blagojevich speaks to the press outside of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on August 02, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Inset: President-Elect Donald Trump at the Embassy of the United... More Scott Olson/Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images.
Better known in political circles as "Blago," the former Democratic governor of Illinois said the "weaponization" of the DOJ dates back to 2008, when federal prosecutors led by Patrick Fitzgerald—an acolyte of former FBI Director James Comey who was appointed U.S. Attorney by former President George W. Bush—indicted him on charges of corruption after he was caught on federal wiretap attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, who had just been elected to the White House.
"I didn't break a single law. I didn't cross a line. I never took a penny, no one even said I did," he said in an interview on Thursday. "It was all politics. Political conversations that were initiated by then-President-elect Obama to talk a political deal for the appointment of the U.S. Senator. He didn't do anything wrong, neither did I."
In 2010, an Illinois jury found Blagojevich guilty on 17 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy and attempted extortion. Two years later, he began a fourteen-year prison sentence that Trump would go on to commute in February 2020.
"When they got away with doing it to a Democratic governor in the fifth-largest state, they got emboldened," Blagojevich said. "Some of the same people involved in this stuff—Patrick Fitzgerald and James Comey—are very tight. They felt that if they can do it to [me], they can take it to the next level and start doing it to a president and then, a presidential candidate."
Blagojevich said while there's a "very strong" partisan component to the alleged weaponization of the federal government, he argues federal prosecutors are also largely driven by a desire for personal career advancement, regardless of which party is in power.
"To make a big name for yourself," he said, noting that the attorneys who prosecuted his case would go on to become "partners of big law firms, making millions of dollars. One of them became a judge. Some of them had political aspirations. Some of them go on to CNN."
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Washington Post
Trump grants clemency to high-profile individuals, including Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken and Bernard Kerik
By
Anne Gearan,
Josh Dawsey,
Beth Reinhard and
Colby Itkowitz
Feb. 18, 2020
President Trump on Tuesday used his sweeping presidential pardon powers to forgive the crimes of a list of boldface names, including disgraced politician Rod R. Blagojevich, convicted junk bond king Michael Milken and former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik.
Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of seven convicted white-collar criminals at the center of federal anti-corruption and tax fraud cases spanning decades, alongside four women whose cases were not as well known.
The action frees Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois, from the federal correctional facility in Colorado where he was serving out his 14-year sentence. He was convicted on corruption charges in 2011 for trying in 2008 to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
“He’ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail,” Trump told reporters. “That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others.”
Tuesday’s clemency announcements came as Trump has been flexing his power in recent days after being acquitted by the Senate on two impeachment charges. The president has removed from their jobs witnesses who testified against him and publicly weighed in on criminal cases concerning his associates while also dismissing the idea that his actions have crossed ethical or legal lines.
The pardons and commutations focus on the type of corruption and lying charges his associates were convicted of as part of the Russia investigation, once again raising the question of whether he will pardon former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime adviser and friend Roger Stone. Trump said he hadn’t thought about pardoning those three but made clear he wasn’t happy with the cases brought against them.
“I think Roger Stone has been treated unfairly. I think General Flynn has been treated very unfairly,” he told reporters. “I think a lot of people have been treated very unfairly.”
The executive actions announced Tuesday fit a pattern of highly personal presidential justice that largely bypasses the traditional pardon process administered by the Justice Department. Most of the people who have received clemency under Trump have been well-connected offenders who had a line into the White House or currency with his political base.
Most Trump clemency grants bypass Justice Dept. and go to well-connected offenders
Milken received a pardon with the White House providing a long list of advocates for the wealthy financier, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, political donors Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Milken became a symbol of the culture of greed during the 1980s that was fictionalized in movies such as “Wall Street,” where Michael Douglas plays ruthless financier Gordon Gekko, who declares that “greed is good.”
Milken rose to prominence for his role in developing high-interest-bearing securities markets, known as junk bonds, before pleading guilty in 1990 to six felony counts, including securities fraud, mail fraud and aiding in the filing of a false tax return.
Milken, a major donor to causes such as cancer research, has sought to rehabilitate his image.
Also on Trump’s pardon list were Kerik, who was convicted of tax fraud, and Edward DeBartolo Jr., the billionaire former owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team, who pleaded guilty two decades ago to charges related to his role in a corruption case against former Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards (D).
The president also pardoned David Safavian, a senior official in the George W. Bush administration who was convicted of obstructing a federal investigation as part of the scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff,and two lesser-known business executives, technology executive Ariel Friedler and construction company executive Paul Pogue, who were convicted of computer and tax charges. He also pardoned Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.
Kerik is a frequent visitor to the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida and recently posted a picture at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, tagging the president and bragging of “Badassry” there. He declined to comment. Safavian now works at the Trump-aligned American Conservative Union Foundation’s justice center and attacks Trump critics through his Twitter account. Blagojevich’s wife lobbied for her husband’s release, including going on Fox News to make her case.
The White House says all 11 actions help people who were treated unfairly or had repaid society through good works. Most are white men with connections to power and, in some cases, to Trump himself.
Blagojevich and Trump were well acquainted from when Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s show “The Apprentice” in 2010. Trump fired Blagojevich for shoddy work on a Florida theme park project, telling him, “Your Harry Potter facts were not accurate. Who did the research?”
Kerik and Milken were prominent New Yorkers during Trump’s professional rise as a real estate magnate there.
“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”
The 11 clemency grants Tuesday mark the largest group Trump has announced, but it barely dents the record-setting backlog of nearly 13,000 people waiting for responses to their clemency requests.
The White House released a synopsis of each granted case Tuesday, including lists of supporters that reads like a who’s-who of the president’s elite orbit.
Nelson Peltz, who threw the president a $10 million fundraiser at his $95 million Palm Beach, Fla., house Saturday night, recommended the pardon of Milken.
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TV personalities, including Geraldo Rivera, Andrew Napolitano and Maria Bartiromo, were cited as pardon advocates.
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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who advises the president, also takes on legal clients, including Friedler, who received a pardon.
Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was listed as a supporter for both Milken and Kerik, who also received backing from disgraced Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was granted clemency by Trump last year. Kerik rode his prominence as Giuliani’s police chief during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to a nomination to be homeland security secretary in the Bush administration. But he soon ran into legal trouble, and his nomination was pulled.
Newsmax Media chief executive Christopher Ruddy said he had lobbied Trump on behalf of Kerik and Blagojevich.
“It was just so glaring that it was a political case,” Ruddy said of Blagojevich.
The entire GOP delegation from Illinois lobbied against the Blagojevich commutation, officials said.
“We are disappointed by the President’s commutation of Rod Blagojevich’s federal sentence. We believe he received an appropriate and fair sentence,” Reps. Darin LaHood, John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis and Mike Bost said in a statement. “History will not judge Rod Blagojevich well.”
Trump made phone calls to the Illinois Republicans including LaHood last week to argue that the Blagojevich sentence was unjust, two administration officials said. But the lawmakers were not convinced.
Some campaign and White House officials opposed the clemency grants — particularly for Blagojevich — believing they could be damaging politically and were unnecessary. Some officials were still seeking to talk Trump out of the actions — some of which had been in the pipeline for more than a year — this weekend.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who signed a letter supporting the Kerik pardon, said the president “has had a lot of respect for Bernie over the years.” Rivera also signed the letter and was instrumental in the pardon, King said.
Trump acknowledged that in deciding whom to pardon, “a lot of times I really rely on the people that know them.”
The head of the Justice Department’s pardon office during the first two years of the Trump administration told The Washington Post that he quit last year because the White House had sidelined his office in favor of taking its cues from celebrities, political allies and Fox News.
DeBartolo and Kerik were denied pardons under Obama. Friedler had never applied to the pardon office, Justice Department records show.
Most presidents in recent decades have faced accusations that they exploited the pardon power. President Bill Clinton issued pardons in the final hours of his presidency to his half brother, a Whitewater business partner, his former housing secretary and a fugitive commodities trader married to a major Democratic donor.
Under Trump, however, politically motivated grants have become the rule, not the exception.
. Nearly all of those selected had been sentenced under the mandatory-minimum penalties deployed during the “war on drugs” that critics say disproportionately punished minority communities. Nearly all of the people who received commutations from Obama were men and nearly 80 percent were African American and Hispanic, according to a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Obama granted an unprecedented number of commutations, about 1,700, under a sweeping initiative that prioritized nonviolent drug offenders
The program ended when Trump took office. He has granted clemency to only one African American man so far: the late boxer Jack Johnson.
The White House also announced Tuesday that Trump had granted commutations to three women convicted of nonviolent drug or fraud offenses. The cases of Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz and Judith Negron were supported by Alice Johnson, a criminal-justice advocate who had her life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense commuted by Trump in 2018. Johnson, whose case was featured in a Trump campaign ad aired during the Super Bowl this month, had been recommended to Trump by reality star and criminal-justice advocate Kim Kardashian West.
“It’s a clemency process for the well-connected, and that’s it,” said Rachel Barkow, a New York University Law School professor and clemency expert. “Trump is wielding the power the way you would expect the leader of a banana republic who wants to reward his friends and cronies.”
Blagojevich was caught on FBI wiretaps talking about trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat, saying that it was a “valuable thing” and that “you don’t just give it away for nothing.”
Trump has mentioned the Democrat’s case frequently in recent years, focusing on what Trump said was a disproportionate punishment for an offense he suggested was really just politics.
“He’s been in jail for seven years over a phone call where nothing happens — over a phone call which he shouldn’t have said what he said, but it was braggadocio, you would say,” Trump told reporters last year. “I would think that there have been many politicians — I’m not one of them, by the way — that have said a lot worse over the telephone.”
Trump first publicly mused about commuting Blagojevich’s sentence in 2018, when he exercised his clemency powers in a string of cases and speculated about others he might pardon. Others mentioned at the time included Martha Stewart, the television personality and lifestyle mogul who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale.
Trump has routinely downplayed and mischaracterized the case against Blagojevich, whose trial included not only the wiretap but also witnesses testifying that he had solicited campaign cash in exchange for official acts.
In comments last year, Trump also falsely blamed Blagojevich’s treatment on “the Comey gang and all these sleazebags,” a reference to James B. Comey, the FBI director Trump fired amid the mounting investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Comey was in the private sector at the time of Blagojevich’s prosecution and conviction in 2011.
At a fundraiser last year at his Chicago hotel, Trump polled the room on whether he should grant a pardon, taking some donors by surprise. Trump was pleased that so many people said they would be okay with it, people familiar with the event said.
Blagojevich’s turn as a contestant on Trump’s NBC reality show came after he was indicted but before his convictions. Trump praised Blagojevich at the time for having “a lot of guts” to appear on the program.
John Wagner and Marc Fisher contributed to this report.
(CNN)Here is a look at the life of Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois who served eight years in federal prison.
Personal
Birth date:December 10, 1956
Birth place:Chicago, Illinois
Birth name:Rod Blagojevich (has no middle name, uses the initial R to honor his father)
Father:Rade Blagojevich, steelworker
Mother:Millie (Govedarica) Blagojevich
Marriage:Patricia (Mell) Blagojevich (1990-present)
Children:Anne and Amy
Education: Northwestern University, B.A., 1979; Pepperdine University, J.D., 1983
Other Facts
Last name is pronounced Bluh-GOY-uh-vitch.
His father was a prisoner of war for four years in a Nazi camp during World War II.
Timeline
1986-1988 - Assistant state's attorney in Cook County, Illinois.
1992-1996 - Serves in the Illinois House, representing the 33rd District.
1996-2002 - US representative from Illinois's 5th District.
November 2002 - Becomes the first Democrat elected governor of Illinois in 30 years.
January 13, 2003 - Is sworn in as the 40th governor of Illinois.
January 8, 2007 - Is sworn in for a second term as governor of Illinois.
December 9, 2008 - Is taken into federal custody on corruption charges. He is charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, are accused of "conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits" by leveraging his authority to appoint a US senator to replacePresident-elect Barack Obama.
December 30, 2008 - Blagojevich appoints former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama.
January 9, 2009 - The Illinois House of Representatives votes to impeach Blagojevich. The vote is 114-1.
January 26, 2009 - Impeachment hearings begin in the Illinois Senate. Blagojevich does not attend, choosing instead to appear on "Larry King Live," "The View" and "Good Morning America."
January 29, 2009 - The Illinois Senatevotes unanimouslyto remove Blagojevich and to bar him from holding political office in Illinois again.
April 2, 2009 - Indicted on 16 felony counts by a federal grand jury.
April 14, 2009 - Blagojevich pleads not guilty.
June 13, 2009 - Appears in a Chicago comedy show "Rod Blagojevich Superstar."
September 8, 2009 - Blagojevich's autobiography, "The Governor" is published.
2010 -Appears as a contestant on four episodesof the "Celebrity Apprentice" reality TV show.
June 3, 2010 - Blagojevich's trial on corruption charges begins.
August 17, 2010 - The jury in Blagojevich's trial returns its verdict after deliberating for 14 days. He is found guilty of making false statements to federal investigators. The jury is unable to come to a decision on 23 other counts.
February 24, 2011 - A federal judge drops three of 23 corruption charges against Blagojevich.
May 2, 2011- Blagojevich's retrial begins.
June 27, 2011 - The jury comes back with 17 guilty verdicts, one not guilty and two counts deadlocked.
December 7, 2011 - Sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.
March 15, 2012 - Reports to Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Colorado to begin serving a 14-year sentence.
July 15, 2013- Blagojevich's lawyers appeal his conviction to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming the trial judge failed to explain to jurors that "political deal-making" can be legal and "misled the jury by failing to explain the legal distinction between campaign contributions and bribes."
July 21, 2015 - The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturns five counts against Blagojevich, saying the prosecutors did not prove that he broke the law when trying to sell Obama's Senate seat.
August 19, 2015 -The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals denies Blagojevich a rehearing. Blagojevich will now ask the US Supreme Court to overturn his remaining convictions and sentence.
March 30, 2016 -Two days after the Supreme Court declines to hear Blagojevich's appeal, federal prosecutors file a motion asking a US District Judge to schedule a resentencing date for the former governor. Prosecutors will not retry Blagojevich on the five charges that were overturned by the appeals court.
August 9, 2016 - US District Judge James Zagel imposes the same 14-year sentence against Blagojevich.
September 11, 2017 -Blagojevich's first interview since he was sent to prison is published in Chicago magazine.
November 3, 2017 -Blagojevich submits a second request to overturn his conviction and sentencing to the US Supreme Court.
June 5, 2018 - Files clemency paperwork, officially asking President Donald Trump to commute his prison sentence. The move comes days after Trump told reporters he was considering commuting Blagojevich's sentence.
July 12, 2019 - Rev. Jesse Jackson signs a letter encouraging Trump to grant a full pardon to Blagojevich.
August 7, 2019 - Trump tells reporters he wants to commute Blagojevich's sentence because the former governor was "treated unbelievably unfairly." The next day Trump tweets that White House staff is continuing to review "the possibility of commuting" Blagojevich's sentence.
February 18, 2020 -Trump announces he has commuted Blagojevich's prison sentence, and Blagojevich is released after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence.
May 14, 2020 -Blagojevich's podcast "Lightning Rod" debuts.
May 18, 2020 -Is disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court.
November 5, 2021 - "Being Blago," a four-part docuseries, is released on Hulu.
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Fox News
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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat whose 14-year corruption sentence was commuted by former President Trump,...
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Capitol News Illinois
Judge rips Blagojevich’s ‘publicity stunt’ bid to get court’s approval to run for office again
In opinion quoting Dr. Seuss, judge tells ex-governor case 'never should have been filed' ... A federal judge this week channeled one of the most...
.Mar 23, 2024
Washington Post
Analysis | DeSantis’s dilemma on sending Lara Trump to the Senate
“I've got this thing, and it's [expletive] golden,” then-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (D) once said of a Senate appointment he was...
==
Rod R. Blagojevich[2][3][4] (Serbian: Род Благојевић, Rod Blagojević; born December 10, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago. He was elected governor in 2002.
:{:{On December 9, 2008, Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.[5][6] As a result, on January 9, 2009, the Illinois House of Representatives voted by a 114–1 vote to impeach Blagojevich for corruption and misconduct in office,[7][8] the first time such an action has been taken against a governor of Illinois,[9] making him the second state official in Illinois history to be impeached.}:
The Illinois State Senate unanimously found him guilty of the charges of impeachment, and he was removed from office on January 29, 2009. In a separate and also unanimous vote, Blagojevich was banned for life from holding public office in the State of Illinois.}: