Convicted Ex-Gov Blagojevich Was Not Pardoned By Obama

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jan 20, 2017 3:24PM

Illinois Governor-turned-punchline Rod Blagojevich, currently serving a prison sentence for corruption, was not among the final group of commutations President Barack Obama issued during his final day in office Thursday.

Blagojevich, who was convicted of attempting to sell Obama's Senate seat appointment after he was elected president in 2008, had requested that the president commute his sentence last year, as his final days in office drew closer.

Blagojevich's wife Patti Blagojevich, wrote on Facebook that the news was "crushing."

“Don’t know if he is done yet. I’m so disappointed for Rod, and this is so hard on my girls. Even though I try to tell them not to get their hopes up, it is still crushing," she wrote, according to the Sun-Times.

Blagojevich's legal team has been working to get him out of prison since he was sentenced in 2011. Last year he also requested his sentence be reduced from 14 years to five, but a judge denied that request at an August re-sentencing hearing, even though an appeals court had thrown out some of Blagojevich's convictions.