Daily Herald opinion: Trump’s pardon of Blagojevich condones political corruption
When former President Joe Biden pardoned his son weeks before leaving office, despite repeatedly vowing not to, we were disappointed by his duplicity.
When President Donald Trump issued a sweeping pardon for the Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom violently attacked the Capitol and the officers sworn to protect it, we were dismayed.
And now, less than a month later, we are left shaking our heads -- but hardly shocked -- by Trump’s pardon Monday of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
We have noted in the past that pardons are too often cynical, even corrupt. They are at times little more than favors passed off as compassion or political payback doled out under the guise of justice.
Pardoning Blagojevich — a one-time contestant on Trump’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” reality show — in no way resembles justice.
Blagojevich, a Democrat, was convicted in 2011 on charges that included trying to sell then-President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison but was released after eight when Trump, then in his first term, commuted the sentence.
Thus, in 2020, Trump made Blagojevich a free man.
Now, he’s rebranding him a victim.
Trump says Blagojevich was set up by “bad people,” despite all the evidence to the contrary. Apparently, “corrupt” only applies to the president’s perceived enemies.
Illinois politicians in both parties Monday blasted the pardon.
“In a state with more than its fair share of public corruption, the Blagojevich chapter still looms as one of the worst,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement.
Illinois Republican Party state central committee member Aaron Del Mar of Palatine told our Russell Lissau that the pardon — coming as the jury is still out in former House speaker Mike Madigan’s corruption trial — sets a “bad example.”
“It says that only certain people are going to be held accountable,” Del Mar added.
It’s an excellent point, and one that goes to the heart of why pardons can be problematic in any administration, all the more so if motivated by resentment over mercy.
Pardons come too easily to those with direct ties to the Oval Office. The rest of us are held to a different standard.
To Illinoisans, Blagojevich represents a dark chapter in our state’s long, ugly history of political corruption. While other Illinois governors also have served time behind bars, he’s the only one to be impeached and removed from office.
Yet he’s the one who gets a pardon.
What message does that send to politicians who traffic in favors? Worse, what message does it send to those who serve our state with honor, putting public service ahead of personal gain?
A pardon opens up new possibilities for Blagojevich, and there’s even talk of Trump appointing him ambassador to Serbia.
Imagine the reality show potential in that.