President Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He served eight years in prison for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. Trump commuted his sentence during his first term.

In a statement outside his home, Blagojevich expressed gratitude toward Trump and praised his presidency.

While signing the pardon in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump called Blagojevich a victim of injustice.

President Trump has pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of corruption-related crimes, including trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama.

Blagojevich served as the state's governor from 2003-'09. It was a political saga toward the end of his time in office.

Looking ahead to the November general election, leading Illinois Republicans thought they had a marketable message to voters by pointing to myriad federal investigations that have ensnared Democrats at the city, suburban and state level.

But Republican President Donald Trump’s decision Tuesday to commute former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence on federal corruption charges may have short-circuited the GOP’s strategy.

Offering pardons is perhaps the closest thing the president has to absolute power, and in using this power Tuesday, President Trump gave glimpses of how he sees himself.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to 11 people who served prison sentences for crimes in high-profile cases ranging from gambling fraud to tax evasion to drug-related charges.

Trump, who has broad clemency powers granted by the Constitution, granted full pardons – a full legal forgiveness for a crime – to seven people and commuted, or shortened, the sentences of four others.

“President Donald Trump went on a clemency blitz Tuesday, commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence and pardoning former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik… [along with] financier Michael Milken, the ‘junk bond king’ who served two years in prison in the early 1990s after pleading guilty to violating U.S. securities laws, and Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal.” (AP News)

The left is critical of the pardons and worries about their impact on efforts to combat corruption.

If Roger Stone is dispatched to prison for years, President Donald Trump will commute his sentence or pardon him altogether.

The odds of that happening soared on Tuesday, the minute Trump commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor, and wiped clean with pardons the criminal records of some other high-profile people.

Trump does nothing for anybody that is not, at bottom, for himself. In this case, Blagojevich becomes the beneficiary.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday, one of several high-profile grants of clemency he issued as he ramped up his criticism of federal prosecutions.

Trump announced pardons for former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, rogue financier Michael Milken and former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., who pleaded guilty in a gambling fraud case in the late 1990s. The president said he has not decided what to do with convicted allies Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.

By commuting the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, President Trump has boosted one of the mosquitolike corrupt officials who suck the blood out of democracy.

After all, this is not someone who deserves presidential leniency.

President Trump on Tuesday said he pardoned former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik and commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat following the 2008 election.

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Trump gives 49ers a Super Bowl consolation prize as he pardons former owner
The moves come just hours after it was announced that Trump granted clemency to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr. for his conviction more than two decades ago in a gambling fraud scandal.