Netflix
Rod and Patti Blagojevich
The ultimate episode of Netflix’s new collection Trial by Media focuses on disgraced former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. The present goals to “look at a number of the most dramatic and memorable trials in current historical past” by way of the lens of the concept “courtroom dramas have more and more been remodeled right into a type of leisure.”
On this case, Blagojevich was convicted on corruption expenses, sentenced to 14 years in federal jail. Right here’s what you must know concerning the trial and the place “Blago” is now.
Trump Commuted Blagojevich’s Sentence
Throughout his on-going trial, Blagojevich appeared within the spring 2010 season of Donald Trump’s actuality present The Celeb Apprentice. He was fired in week 4, however he will need to have made an impression as a result of after Trump turned president, he commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in February 2020.
Trump’s commutation erased the sentence however not the conviction. The president mentioned of Blago’s sentencing, “That was a tremendously highly effective, ridiculous sentence, in my view … many individuals disagreed with the sentence.”
Because the quarantine started, Blago and his spouse, Patti, have been making movies of themselves speaking about hazard pay for healthcare staff or demonstrating how one can make protecting masks. He has additionally known as on Ellen DeGeneres to assist in his combat for prison justice reform. And in a current interview with CNN, Blagojevich referred to himself as a “political prisoner,” with which Anderson Cooper took umbrage.
Blagojevich Was Elected Illinois Governor in 2002
In 2002, Blagojevich was elected because the 40th Governor of Illinois, following a six-year stint serving because the Illinois’ fifth district consultant within the Home of Representatives in Congress. Within the governor’s race, he defeated Republican Illinois Lawyer Normal Jim Ryan by working on a platform of “ending enterprise as ordinary,” in line with the New York Occasions.
Blago was reelected in 2006 after which in 2008, he was arrested by federal brokers and charged with corruption. The criticism alleged that the governor was concerned in a number of “pay to play” schemes, together with corrupt dealings in filling the vacant U.S. Senate seat after Barack Obama was elected president.
In response to the New York Occasions transcript of the Justice Division briefing on the investigation, examples of Blago’s corruption included asking for a $50,000 private contribution from the CEO of a kids’s hospital in alternate for the hospital funding, or providing up Obama’s Senate seat to the “highest bidder for marketing campaign contributions.” Blago additionally tried to extort the Chicago Tribune newspaper after unflattering editorials had been written there about him.
“Governor Blagojevich and defendant Jonathan — John Harris, his chief of employees, schemed to ship a message to the Chicago Tribune that if the Tribune Firm needed to promote its ballfield, Wrigley Discipline, to be able to full a enterprise enterprise, the worth of doing so was to fireside sure editors, together with one editor by identify.”
Blago was impeached by the Illinois legislature in January 2009, the primary impeachment in Illinois authorities historical past. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2009. In August 2010, he was convicted of 24 federal expenses, and over a 12 months later, he was sentenced to 14 years in federal jail. He reported to jail in March 2012.
Trial By Media is out now on Netflix.
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