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Feb. 10 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose prison sentence on corruption charges while in office was commuted during his first term as president. "It was sort of a terrible injustice," Trump said at the Oval Office. "They just were after him. They go after a lot of people. These are bad people, the other side."
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A pardon removes guilt and civil disabilities, and commutation only shortens the sentence.
Blagojevich was the Democratic governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, until he was removed from office by the state Legislature. His scheme was to sell an appointment to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama upon his 2008 election as president.
Before his trial, Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump's TV show The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010. It was season three of the series.
"He was set up by a lot of bad people -- some of the same people that I had to deal with," Trump said. "He wasn't quite as successful, but he had somebody that saw what was going on. I didn't know him, other than I believe he was on 'The Apprentice' for a little while. He had a fantastic wife. She fought like hell to get him out."
A first trial in 2010 resulted in a hung jury on all but one charge of guilt against him, but a second resulted in Blagojevich's 2011 conviction on 17 of 20 corruption counts.
"I got fired by Donald Trump," Blagojevich said before his sentence. "This thing I've got to do now is worse."
Blagojevich served eight years of a 14-year prison sentence before Trump commuted his sentence on Feb. 18, 2020, during his first term in the White House. He was eligible for early release in March 2024.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, the second time in two years, in 2018.
Blagojevich told CNN last year he considers himself a "Trumpocrat," which he described as a Democrat who supports Trump.
Before the pardon, Trump told WBBM-TV, "that I'll always be profoundly grateful to President Trump for everything he's done for me and for my family."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, issued a statement denouncing the pardon: "In a state with more than its fair share of public corruption, the Blagojevich chapter still looms as one of the worst. America and Serbia deserve better."
Last week, Politico reported Trump is considering nominating Blagojevich as Serbia's ambassador.
Three others -- Otto Kerner Jr., Dan Walker and George Ryan -- have also served time in federal prison as a either sitting or former Illinois governor.
