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ROD
BLAGOJEVICH SUES SO HE CAN AGAIN SEEK ELECTION
Illinois Policy Institute/
Noah Shaar
Rod Blagojevich is out of federal prison,
and now wants to be back on the ballot. Illinois’ former governor sued
Aug. 2 for the right to run for public office again despite his
conviction for public corruption. |
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 On the steps of Chicago’s Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where he was
convicted of trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat, former Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich announced, “I’m back.”
Blagojevich filed a lawsuit against the State of Illinois to win back his right
to run for office. He lost that right Jan. 29, 2009, after the Illinois Senate
voted unanimously to permantly disqualify him following another unanimous vote
to convict him on broad articles of impeachment.
“I’m not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing,” Blagojevich said.
Blagojevich was caught on a federal wiretap trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat
being vacated by President Barack Obama.
“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,” Blagojevich said Nov. 5,
2008, the day after Obama’s victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park. “I’m not
just giving it up for (expletive) nothing.”
 Blagojevich was arrested by federal agents a month later and convicted in 2010
of different pay-to-play schemes involving politicians, a children’s hospital
and the Chicago Tribune. He was sentenced to 14 years on 18 criminal counts.
But on Feb. 18, 2020, eight years into his sentence, Blagojevich received a
call: President Donald Trump pardoned the former governor.
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“That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous
sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others,” Trump
said.
Blagojevich was free within hours and flew home to Chicago that
night. The next morning he christened himself a “Trumpocrat” and
promised “to turn an injustice into a justice.”
Blagojevich’s federal lawsuit claims the Illinois
General Assembly acted unconstitutionally when they forbid him from
calling and questioning witnesses during his 2009 impeachment trial.
In this lawsuit, Blagojevich expressed interest in calling disgraced
former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan as a witness.
Federal agents have been targeting Madigan’s inner circle, drawing
closer to the former speaker, after he was implicated in a $1.3
million bribery scheme involving Commonwealth Edison.
If he prevails, Blagojevich could regain the right to run for
elected office.
“I have no plans to run for any particular office,” Blagojevich
said. “However, I am not going to rule out any options either. I
feel like I was a great governor for the people.” |
