Trial by Media (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Blago! - full transcript
When Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich finds himself facing a corruption trial, he tries to embrace the media and even goes on 'Celebrity Apprentice.'
He is greeted
by enthusiastic groups wherever he goes.
He stops to talk with people,
to shake hands, to sign autographs,
and, at times, gets an earful
about the issues.
Rod was a natural talent
in that he loved to jump on something
that would get him on TV.
Joining us tonight, Rod Blagojevich.
The first member of Congress
to alert the public
about the napalm recycling plan.
Congressman Blagojevich
helped negotiate the release
of the three US soldiers.
I don't think we're heroes.
I just think we're looking after our own.
He absolutely embraced
the media's attention.
He lived off of it. He thrived off of it.
That's one of the reasons
he never lost an election.
I think the press is just
a necessary part of the job.
But for Rod Blagojevich,
dealing with the press
really is a double-edged sword.
Governor Blagojevich arrested!
Twenty-five cents!
Governor Rod Blagojevich
is accused of trying to sell
Barack Obama's Senate seat
to the highest bidder.
While he may be the nation's
least popular governor,
he's been the most popular news story.
- Political shame.
- Appalling.
Like a sports agent
shopping the highest bidder.
The governor's own words
describing the Senate seat,
- "I've got this thing."
- "Got this thing."
"I've got this thing
and it's golden."
- "...it's effing golden."
- "...bleeping golden..."
"And I'm not giving it up
for bleeping nothing."
- "For nothing."
- "For nothing." Did you say this?
When somebody gets indicted
in a marriage,
majority of the times, they get divorced.
I suppose I could've packed my kids up
and said,
"Good luck with that.
You know, we're gonna go...
live in Wisconsin,"
or something like that.
"Call us when it's done."
But the thing is,
I couldn't let the father of my children
and my husband for years
fight that battle alone.
I know Rod,
and I know his heart,
and I know his intentions,
and I know that he never intended
to break any law
or commit any crime.
Rod was all about trying
to make things better for people.
When they talk about
term limits for Illinois politicians,
they don't mean how long
they can serve in office.
No, they mean the prison term
that former governor Otto Kerner served
for taking race track stocks
in return for favors.
Or the year and a half
former governor Dan Walker served
for bank fraud after he left office.
Or the six and a half years
former governor George Ryan
is now serving
for selling off licenses and contracts.
Illinois is probably the heavyweight
champion of corruption in that sense.
We've had five governors
that have been indicted in this state.
After years of ethics scandals
and investigations,
there was a man who ran
on an anti-corruption platform.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, as a native
and lifelong resident of Chicago,
I want to welcome
all the delegates and visitors
to this most American of American cities.
So there was a time in Chicago
when Rod Blagojevich was seen by the press
as being skilled as a politician.
And some of my first impressions
of him were...
Yeah, just that he was
really good at it.
He had this really outsized,
likable personality
which was engaging for a lot of people.
Here's this guy
from the neighborhood come in and,
"I'm gonna take down these elites"
who've been in power for 26 years,
"and we're gonna have a new day
in Illinois."
And people are like, "That's my guy."
Rod Blagojevich's history
is very different
from those Chicago politicians
that a lot of people have heard about.
He came from nothing. Five-room apartment,
two-flat in Chicago on the Northwest side.
His dad was an immigrant
from Serbia who worked in factories.
His mom worked for the CTA taking tickets.
Rod, in high school,
went to work on the Alaskan pipeline
because that was the only way
he could get through college
and be there with all
of what he would call "the dilettantes."
He knew the struggles
of regular, solid, blue-collar workers.
He really did come from nobody
and nowhere.
And his only way to push for changes
in how things are done
was to meet people
and to play the political game.
I first met Rod at a fundraiser
for my father.
I had just broken up
with a long-term boyfriend,
like, on a Wednesday.
Rather than feeling sorry for myself,
I decided to go to my dad's fundraiser,
which was on a Sunday.
We were introduced by a mutual friend
at that fundraiser.
So my husband was literally, like,
the rebound.
His car was always getting broken into,
so we're in the car, and there's no radio,
and he was just singing Elvis songs to me.
I thought, you know,
there might be something there.
We ended up dating for a year,
and then were engaged for a year,
and then got married.
At that point, Rod was a young lawyer,
but he always was interested in politics.
I think when he was in fifth grade,
he knew all the presidents
backwards and forwards.
Hi. Rod Blagojevich. How are you?
Nobody really knew
who he was back then,
beyond he married Patti Mell.
He was Alderman Dick Mell's son-in-law.
I have a long family history of politics
here in Chicago.
Dick Mell
is the Chicago political machine.
Just loud, in your face, opinionated,
and just at the center of everything.
Dick Mell was an alderman,
which is a very powerful person
in the Chicago City Council.
And he had this political army
who helped him win elections
and keep power.
A couple of years into our marriage,
my dad needs a candidate
for state representative.
Rod had one question.
"Am I free to vote
the way my conscience urges me to vote?"
My dad said,
"Yeah, I don't care about that."
These were elite politicians
who were in control of everything.
And there were real consequences
to either being a part of the machine
or taking on the machine.
But Rod recognized that was the only way
he could get into politics
and get things done.
Rod was a guy
that was very, very restless.
He just wanted to shake things up,
change things.
But he didn't have any power.
He was a state rep,
very quickly gets bored,
decides he wants to run for Congress.
The well-financed Democrat
with powerful family ties.
Rod, your father-in-law's
a very powerful Chicago alderman.
You wouldn't be in this race
if it weren't for Dick Mell.
It's fair to say
he's been a big help to me.
Rod gets elected to Congress.
What's the first thing
he starts thinking about?
"Maybe I ought to run for governor."
We felt like for Rod to be known
as more than Dick Mell's son-in-law,
you gotta have a million dollars.
We said, "Rod, you get that,
people will start taking you seriously."
He would go anywhere to raise money,
and there were no limits back then.
So he was raising 25,000,
50,000, 100,000 at a time.
One of the most
expensive primaries Illinois has seen.
Amassing a huge
campaign war chest.
Had been in third place...
Blagojevich already has
three million dollars...
- moved up to second place.
- But more is needed.
You'll take PAC money?
We've been raising money.
We play by the rules.
Closing in slowly
on first place...
He had the most money to spend.
And here Rod Blagojevich
learned the lesson
that raising money equals power.
And it changes everything.
The next governor of the state
of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich!
We love you!
By all accounts,
it was a pretty quick rise to power,
ten years from the time
he started in politics
that he was governor of Illinois.
It was crazy
'cause I was only 38 years old
when Rod won for governor.
I was seven months pregnant
with our second child.
So it was a very hopeful time in my life.
- Governor, may God bless you.
- Thank you.
I want to make clear
that business as usual
in Illinois state government
is a thing of the past.
There were two things that Rod liked.
One was winning,
and two was champion the big idea.
He loved to be part
of something innovative.
He was a political entrepreneur.
He was able to do some expansion
of health care for children.
He very famously offered elderly people
free rides on public transportation.
They passed a minimum wage hike.
One of the first states to do that.
He forced pharmacists
to dispense birth control
and not allow their veto
just because of their political beliefs.
He said,
"We're gonna tear down all the tolls.
We're gonna do this open road tolling,"
and it cut commute time for everybody.
And, of course, he couldn't help himself.
His name was on
every one of those open roads.
"Rod Blagojevich, governor."
We were doing the best we could
for the people of Illinois.
And the press was all very good,
you know, at that point.
Charismatic populist
with a possible White House future.
Youngsters clamored
for his autograph this morning.
It was almost like you were,
like, a rock star.
The voters
have overwhelmingly said
they want a second term as governor.
You've gotta wonder,
what is he thinking
of where he'll be going
after this term is over?
You ain't seen nothing yet.
He's got this perfect pathway
to the White House.
But the problem with Rod Blagojevich,
he had overlearned the lesson
of how important raising money was,
and he was willing to do
just about anything to raise money.
There was this real dichotomy
in Rod Blagojevich
as he got more powerful
because Dick Mell
didn't let Rod Blagojevich forget
that he was a bit of a creation
of Dick Mell.
And Rod Blagojevich
wanted to think of himself
as Alexander Hamilton
who came up, you know,
out of absolutely nothing
and made something of himself
all on his own.
Rod Blagojevich wanted to be independent.
And the way to independence in politics
is through money.
Dick Mell was
the primary engine of raising money.
So there was always this tension.
He needed Dick,
but he resented Dick at the same time.
Somewhere along the line,
Rod meets a couple of fundraising people,
and they started working for him.
Every campaign tries to push the envelope
on campaign finance law.
These guys had torn up the envelope,
and they just didn't care.
They were going around
seeking campaign contributions
in exchange for things
that Rod could do as governor,
different contracts,
different appointments.
Blagojevich was steeped in a world
in which seeking to make money
off of your public position is not weird.
I would imagine that types of exchanges
didn't seem criminal, even,
or weird to him.
It seemed like what politicians do.
And all of a sudden,
Rod starts raising this big money...
and said, "I don't need Dick anymore,"
and Dick gets left behind.
From that point on,
we were at odds with my father.
When you have a situation
where family's involved,
there's a recipe for the politics
being brought into the household.
That's not healthy. That's not...
something I'd recommend to people.
At a family dinner in 2004,
Rod's political life starts to unravel.
Dick is very, very resentful of Rod.
He feels like you dance with the one
who brought you to the dance.
And Dick's the jilted suitor here.
My mom was of course on my dad's side,
and I'm of course on my husband's side,
and it was very difficult.
Right after dinner,
Dick says this off-handed statement
to a reporter,
"They're giving away
important committee assignments
for $50,000 apiece."
Boom, it's big headlines.
My father then,
of course, recanted.
But things were forever
gonna be different.
It's not just bad press.
It gets the FBI's attention.
The FBI starts an investigation
with credible indication
that perhaps a crime has occurred.
We were out there
pulling together records,
and we had picked up clear information
that Rod was being very blunt
about trying to raise campaign dollars
in exchange for things
that you could do as the governor.
So the next step was
to get a court order
to go up on Rod Blagojevich's telephones.
A wiretap.
By that point,
his inner circle are under investigation,
and everybody knew it.
If you know you're under investigation
to the level that Rod was at that point,
step number one is to take your phone
and bury it in the backyard
and stay off of it.
And Rod Blagojevich
basically does the opposite.
I think he felt like there's no way
that his phones
would ever be compromised
as the sitting governor,
and that's where he gets into the trouble
is he continues to run his mouth
like he always does.
At that stage,
this was still an investigation
about campaign contributions,
but they started to hear,
"Wait a minute.
What's he doing with the Senate seat?
We need to let some of that run."
When Barack Obama
got elected president,
Rod Blagojevich, as governor,
was the only person who had the power
to appoint Barack Obama's replacement
in the Senate.
And he decided,
essentially,
to start listening to everybody
about what they could offer.
And he started talking
to some of his closest advisers
and speculating and plotting
how to exchange that decision
for something for his benefit.
I got some lady calling my house
for Jesse Jr. a little while ago.
We were approached, pay to play.
That, you know, he'd raise me 500 grand,
an emissary came.
Then the other guy would raise a million
if I made him a senator.
The Jesse Jackson Jr. camp
and some of his supporters
had come forward
and offered to give campaign contributions
in exchange for Jesse Jackson Jr.
Being appointed to the Senate.
There was talk of him deciding to,
you know, "Hey, maybe I can exchange this"
for somebody who Barack Obama wants
to replace him."
- He's talking about Valerie Jarrett?
- Yeah.
- We should get something for that.
- Yes.
How about Health and Human Services?
Can I get that?
UN ambassador, I'd take that.
How about India? India's vital.
Yeah, India's vital.
I'd say India...
Is that realistic,
or would he reject that?
- That's realistic.
- Is it?
- I think so.
- No shit.
They weren't sure
what Rod Blagojevich was gonna do next.
And the prosecutors felt
that if they didn't move quickly,
Rod Blagojevich could actually
appoint somebody senator,
and as soon as he appoints it,
it happens.
I told my nephew, Alan,
he just turned 26 today.
I said, "Alan..."
I called him for his birthday.
And I said, "It's too bad
you're not four years older
'cause I could've given you
a US Senate seat for your birthday."
I mean, I've got this thing,
and it's fucking golden.
And I'm just not giving it up
for fucking nothing.
We had enough
with recordings we obtained,
with telephone records we had pulled,
and we knew it was time
to take the whole case down.
That morning was like that scene
from The Godfather,
where they're doing the baptism
and people are getting murdered
around them.
They went to my brother-in-law.
They went to Rod's chief of staff.
And they just, like, hit everybody
all at the same time.
Dan, myself,
and another agent, Cathy,
approached the door.
And we purposely picked Cathy
because she had training
in hostage negotiation.
The Illinois State Police put a call
into the governor's home.
It was somebody saying,
"It's the FBI. We're at your door.
Let us in."
And I thought it was a joke,
and I said, "Oh, who is this?"
And I hung up the phone.
Called back.
And they said, "No, this is the FBI.
We're downstairs."
Come open the door,
otherwise we'll bust it open."
Patti's state was mostly irritated.
Um, I'd say very irritated.
They brought a SWAT team.
They brought hostage negotiators
with them.
I mean, what did they think?
My husband was gonna
hold his children hostage or some...
I mean, it was the craziest thing.
Rod was on the stairway,
and one thing that struck me as peculiar
that still told me that he wasn't
totally grasping the situation
is before we walked him down the stairs,
he asked me how his hair looked.
And they brought him downstairs,
and the FBI agent said to me,
"Well, we have to get going
because the press isn't here yet."
Blagojevich gets busted.
Read all about it.
Today's headlines
stunned a state
accustomed to politicians in handcuffs.
He's charged
with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud,
extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion,
and making false statements.
The most serious charge alleges
he offered up the appointment
of President Obama's vacated Senate seat
to the highest bidder.
Blagojevich's arrest in Chicago
was obviously a nuclear weapon going off.
The whole world was listening.
Is this the dumbest guy ever?
- What did you call him?
- Blago-away-avich.
Blago-away-avich. I like...
The press,
they like to build you up,
and then start trying to tear you down.
Rod Blagojevich has gone
from being an embattled public official
to a disgraced private citizen.
That will earn him a permanent place
in the political hall of shame.
What a moron this guy is.
Even recently, the governor
characterized himself as a popular guy.
There's any number of critics
who wonder if he's delusional or not.
I talked to a number
of psychiatrists and said,
"Is this guy nuts?"
They came up
with narcissistic personality disorder.
Governor, the suggestion
that you might not be able
to think rationally at this time,
how do you respond to that?
I mean, come on. It's a...
What's...
What's your question?
A Chicago Tribune poll showed
the governor's approval rating at 13%.
With a recent approval rating
of just 4%.
It may be the lowest
in American history.
It's an embarrassment.
The arrogance of Governor Blagojevich
is beyond pale.
And tomorrow's lead editorial,
already posted on the Tribune website,
calls on Blagojevich to resign.
I personally think
he should at least step aside.
I think it's time for him to go,
but unfortunately, I think he's gonna
drag this out as long as he can.
Governor Blagojevich
turned 52 today,
not exactly the best of birthdays.
His once promising political career
now in shambles.
Thank you very much.
I'm here to tell you right off the bat
that I am not guilty
of any criminal wrongdoing,
that I intend to stay on the job,
and I will fight this thing
every step of the way.
I will fight, I will fight, I will fight,
until I take my last breath.
My father called me up and said,
"Come down to the office.
Rod Blagojevich may want to hire us."
And so, I came down,
and it was right then.
I-I fell in love with Rod right then.
My father asked me after the meeting
was over, "Do you want to do it?"
I said, "The governor of the state,
especially that guy, asks us?"
That's an honor
to represent someone like that.
"Yes, I'm in if you're in."
He knew Sam Adam Jr.
Actually from the R. Kelly case.
And he thought,
"If this guy could get R. Kelly off,
then maybe he can help me."
Sam was kind of an extension
of Rod's personality,
very just out there and gregarious
and aggressive.
Point out to me one single action
that's in the criminal complaint here
that says the governor did anything.
Maybe there was talk...
Now, if you're asking me about tapes,
oh, I know the tapes.
- We know the tapes.
- There are no damaging tapes.
When you take an elected official,
a governor,
rip him from his family
at six o'clock in the morning,
and then say he did all these things
but you can't answer it,
is that really where we are?
Conventional wisdom in Chicago
would say,
you get hit with a corruption case
of this size,
dry up immediately. Don't say anything
that's gonna get you in any more trouble.
But the Blagojevich defense team
took the opposite track.
When Rod was arrested,
basically, he had a zero approval rating.
They showed him with this crazy hair,
looking like a common, everyday criminal.
And so, I had to deal with that.
But I'm a salesman.
Typically, my cases,
you have an old, beat-up Chevy
you gotta make look like
a brand-new Mercedes,
but that's the nature of the business.
And so we tried to get back to even.
Just...
All we wanted was people to listen.
Hi. How are you?
The former Illinois governor
came to New York today
to launch a media campaign.
The Fox and Friends morning show
was the first of a flurry
of even more media interviews today.
He's doing everything
but stick his head in the sand
as he continues to make the rounds
and his case before the media.
When it came to media strategy,
uh, you had an individual
who wanted to speak.
"You don't just
give it away for nothing."
Are these your words?
That's subject to many interpretations.
That could mean I want them
to help us pass health care...
Politics and routine politics
and political horse trading
and discussing what may
or may not be available,
- uh, is how the business works.
- You think that's just routine politics?
Absolutely.
- I did nothing wrong.
- I'm not guilty of criminal wrongdoing.
- Just say, "I am not a crook." Do it.
- No, I'm not gonna say that.
Part of the strategy
was to put him on TV
'cause he still had
this outsized, likable personality.
Hi. I'm Rod Blagojevich.
I'm backstage
at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Please welcome Rod...
Make people laugh.
Make him a sympathetic character
because they thought that
that could ultimately play out in court.
Governor Rod Blagojevich is talking on TV
as he did all day yesterday.
This, we believe,
is the best possible forum that I have.
I saw you on The View.
I saw you on the Today Show.
I saw you on, I think, every other show
that is in production currently.
Many believe this media blitz
is an attempt to influence
potential jurors.
Well, you wonder
whether that's strategy
or whether
he just likes to be on television.
During the pretrial
media strategy,
Rod did become the butt of the joke.
This seat that you're sitting on
right now,
- you could sell this vacant seat...
- Okay.
On Ebay.
You can own
Rod Blagojevich's empty seat.
And the winner gets a clump of Blago hair
found between the cushions.
That being said,
it's better to be the butt of the joke
than to be a criminal.
So, we saw this as improving his position.
This governor has violated
his oath of office.
This governor has breached
the public trust.
This governor must be impeached,
and I urge your "aye" vote.
Rod Blagojevich
is no longer the governor of Illinois.
He was ousted from office late today
after being convicted by the state senate.
Hours before the vote,
Blagojevich made a plea.
You guys are in politics.
You know what we have to do
to go out and run, and run elections.
But his performance
didn't seem to change any minds here.
I now pronounce the judgment of conviction
against Rod R. Blagojevich,
with his removal from office as governor.
The senate also voted to bar him
from ever holding state office again.
As a matter of fact,
we understand
they've already changed the locks
on the doors to this governor's office
behind me here.
Governor, he's taken away
your right to earn money. How do you feel?
What are you gonna do
about legal defense?
Governor, do you have
prospects for a job to pay the bills?
You know, obviously, I'm very interested
in, uh, finding a way to earn a living
so I can support my children and, uh...
and, uh... our family and, uh...
Was this the toughest day yet?
No, it's not.
It's time for a new deal.
It's time to get back to work.
It's time for The Celebrity Apprentice.
With Rod Blagojevich.
- I'll do anything.
- Right.
Legal and ethical and honest.
Rod Blagojevich's defense team
very purposefully decided
that they were gonna turn him
into even more of a celebrity
than he already was.
The way you think, I should've
had you when I was in politics.
- That's all I'm saying.
- Yeah.
First thing I would've told you,
"Hang up the phone. Rod!
Hang up the phone, man."
The defense wanted to put him on TV
and make a national personality
out of him
because they saw the OJ case,
the R. Kelly case.
How about taking a picture with me here?
They knew
that in the American system,
it's a higher bar
to convict a celebrity for sure.
I have great respect for your tenacity,
for the fact that you just don't give up.
But, Rod, you're fired.
The top ten questions
Rod Blagojevich asked himself
before appearing on Celebrity Apprentice.
Number ten.
- "Can I get paid in shampoo?"
- Yeah.
When the media tour first started,
people started saying,
"He's nuts. He's crazy. Blago's crazy."
And then they started saying,
"Well, you know what?"
There's gotta be something to this
'cause no man's gonna go
around the country for a year and a half
"and claim his innocence."
And by the time we got to, uh, trial,
the polling showed 50/50.
Fifty people were coming in
believing that he was guilty.
Fifty said, "You know what?"
Maybe Blago's innocent."
And so, it gave me real confidence.
It gave my father real confidence
to go into that trial with that strategy.
The corruption trial
of Rod Blagojevich opens this morning.
- Sleep well last night?
- I slept great.
You tend to forget Blagojevich
could spend years behind bars
if he's convicted
because he seems to have made
such a mockery of the pretrial process.
Judge James Zagel
warned Blagojevich
against making daily statements
to the press
and Twittering updates from the courtroom.
He does have a following.
And in the criminal context,
he just needs one person.
- Good luck.
- Thank you. Appreciate that. Really?
- Good luck, Rod.
- Thanks, man.
- You're not guilty.
- Thanks, man.
Inside the US attorney's office,
this was being handled
by very experienced, very tough people.
Their best of the best.
In opening arguments,
US attorney Carrie Hamilton
included the Senate seat
in a series of alleged shakedowns
establishing a trend.
"What about me?
What's in it for me?"
The US government
had such a complicated case
that there was a lot of minutiae
that the jury was asked to deal with.
Trying to connect the dots
between Blagojevich and a...
witness after witness...
be a quid pro quo rewarding friends.
This trial is not expected
to go by quickly.
They were relying a lot
on what was known as honest services,
the legal expectation
that an elected official
owes the public
governing free from corruption,
and that that had been violated.
The presentation of that was really
kind of winding and complicated,
and the jury probably
didn't understand it.
More of the same,
the slow, tedious, but careful process.
Today, a little boring.
I think that's a fair word.
So you had the US government
coming in very kind of bookish,
and what they wound up facing
was really a street fight.
You had Sam Adam Jr.
Coming from the world
of the criminal court in Chicago,
26th Street, where it's bare knuckle,
and I think that caught
the federal prosecutors off-guard.
In a loud, rambling opening
fit for the theater,
defense attorney Sam Adam Jr.
Mentioned Blagojevich's now famous hair.
Sam Adam Jr.
Shouted at the jury...
waving his arm,
pointing his fingers...
using a fire
and brimstone approach,
said the governor was the victim.
All of the articles said,
"They're 26th Street clowns."
What we were trying to do is be regular.
You gotta be regular.
These are people
who get up in the morning,
put on their pants one leg at a time
and go to work.
They're not gonna see
these technical laws
and all that and think,
"Oh, well, this one has a comma here.
This one has a semicolon.
What does that mean?"
And so, our entire defense was
all of this was political horse trading.
You may not like it,
you may want to change it,
but that's politics.
There are a lot of other people
that profited from this corruption.
We actually used evidence
we gathered against him
to help convince him to cooperate with us.
But you just don't know
what's gonna happen when you're in court.
Lon, was it difficult
to testify against Blagojevich?
Their witness, Lon Monk,
was Rod's chief of staff.
He said he was taking money himself.
The US attorney asked him, "So how much
of that money did you give Rod?"
And he said,
"Oh, I would never give Rod any money
or tell him I took any money
'cause that's not who Rod is."
Right there, that's it.
If you are his best friend
and you're taking money
but you refuse to give it to him,
so what are we doing here?
What are we talking about?
He didn't get any money, not one dime.
But you under stand, it's very
important for me to make a lot of money.
I need the independence.
I-I-I need the freedom.
Okay? And then I have a personal issue,
which is
I feel like I'm fucking my children.
That's what I feel like.
The whole world's passing me by.
And Amy's going to college
in six years.
Amy's going to college,
and we can't afford it.
They claim all these crimes
and not once is money exchanged.
This is a little mystifying to me.
Sam just pounded on that.
If he's supposedly making all this money,
where are the fancy cars?
Where are the vacations?
This guy can't even afford
to send his kids to college.
That's why he's, you know,
complaining about needing money
and trying to get a job running
a charitable organization or something
in exchange for the Senate seat.
It's because he doesn't have enough money.
So, if he's a criminal,
he's not very good at it.
What's your level of confidence
your client walks out of this building
an innocent man?
A hundred percent. Twelve to zero.
A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent.
After five weeks
of presenting testimony,
prosecutors in the corruption trial
of Rod Blagojevich
have rested their case.
A jury will decide if Illinois
will send its second straight governor
to prison.
If convicted, he could face
up to six million dollars in fines
and a sentence of 415 years in prison.
Have you thought about
what life would be like for you in prison
if, in fact, you get convicted?
I'm human. Of course sometimes
you get those moments.
Glancing at my little six-year-old,
sitting at her kindergarten graduation
around the circle with her classmates
and wondering whether or not
I might not be able to see some of that
as the years go on.
But those are just little moments.
I know what the truth is,
and I'll be fully vindicated.
Reporting tonight,
George Stephanopoulos.
Good evening. For two weeks,
the fate of former Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich
has been in the hands of six men
and six women
in a Chicago courthouse.
Late today, the divided jury
returned its verdict:
Guilty on only one count
in the corruption trial.
Deadlocked on 23 other charges.
Blagojevich was convicted
of lying to federal agents.
But the jury could not reach a verdict
on 23 other corruption charges.
Among them,
attempting to sell the US Senate seat
once held by President Obama.
This is a stunning verdict.
A major victory for Blagojevich.
A stunning upset for federal prosecutors.
I think there was a sense
of overconfidence by the government.
And the defense did a really good job
of getting back to the simple concept:
Follow the money.
And there wasn't a dime
the prosecution showed
went into Blagojevich's pocket.
It was all talk.
So, you know, was he a bad governor
or a criminal?
We'll be seeing you around. Okay.
How you doing, man?
Good. It's good.
- Okay, good luck.
- You're great, man. Thanks.
None of it's true.
Okay. Now we can really say it
when it matters, you know?
See you, guys.
We were elated for the hung jury,
but there was very much a sense of dread
because you knew
they were gonna come back at you again,
and they weren't gonna let it rest.
They were coming right back.
Going into a second trial,
most people believed
that we were going into a worse position
because we knew
that the government would clean up
any errors that they made.
And then, we certainly had
a much smaller team.
The government got to know
my father and I
and the lawyer tricks, if you...
For lack of a better term.
And how we were gonna present evidence.
And so, the best thing for Rod
was to have the second in command,
Aaron Goldstein, come in
and step to the forefront.
I decided to stay from the first trial
to the second trial
'cause I don't leave my clients.
I don't believe in abandoning them.
And that's just a fundamental belief
of mine.
Ready for round two?
I've waited a long time
to get the vindication that I deserve
and that I owe to the people of Illinois.
With jury selection
underway in Chicago,
Rod Blagojevich made his first appearance
at a second federal corruption trial
Thursday.
Blagojevich says
he is more optimistic than ever
of a future not behind bars.
The second trial changed
a significant amount.
And... and one
of the most significant changes
was the prosecution
really streamlined their case,
and they focused primarily
just on the recorded conversations.
We didn't know necessarily
that they were gonna do it that way.
Um, they just sort of sprung it on us
from day one.
The government came out swinging.
They recorded many hundreds of hours
of his phone calls,
and they were able to pick and choose
because they were the ones trying to prove
his guilt or not.
Do they think I would just appoint
Valerie Jarrett for nothing?
Just to make him happy?
- Give this mother his senator?
- Him.
For nothing? Him.
The judge was not letting in
a whole bunch of other tapes
that Rod Blagojevich felt
were helpful to him.
From the very beginning, I said,
"Play all the tapes."
When was it that you've ever heard the guy
who's accused of wrongdoing saying,
"Play all the evidence"?
He felt hamstrung by not being able
to present some of the calls
which sound a lot more political.
There are only so many conversations
to sell the Senate seat.
And then there are 50 other times
you're talking about a political deal.
He thought
that would communicate to the jury
that his intent was more
the political deal
versus something criminal.
Right behind me,
that is Blagojevich making his way...
He was essentially
put into a corner
where the only way he was going to explain
what he did was not wrong
and was just politics
was to get on the stand.
This has been a long
and very difficult journey for Patti,
for our daughters, Amy and Annie,
and for me, of course.
I've waited two and a half years
to finally get a chance
to get on the witness stand
and... and tell the truth,
uh, and to, uh, take as long as it takes
to, uh, answer every question
as honestly and as fully as possible.
He really felt like
he could convince anybody in any room
that he was who he says he was.
He had been doing it
for his entire time in politics,
so he had that confidence.
But the very first question
Reid Schar asked him was,
"You're a convicted liar, aren't you?"
Which of course put Rod Blagojevich
immediately on the defensive
because he was indeed a convicted liar.
Rod Blagojevich did his politician thing
as best as he could,
but unlike talking to the press,
he couldn't go on and on and on
and answer whatever question he wanted to.
Reid Schar was not going to take any BS.
And you've got the judge telling him,
"You have to answer that question."
It became a very difficult situation
for Blagojevich.
You could be likable,
you could kind of put yourself
out there on television,
but that only goes so far
when a jury is actually looking
at the details of the case.
You can't literally
talk your way out of everything.
And that created moments
where jurors were rolling their eyes.
One lady, you know,
told the Tribune afterward
she was drawing pictures of her cats
while he was testifying.
So it did not have the outcome
that he wanted.
Rod Blagojevich
was clearly knocked off stride
by prosecutors'
very aggressive questioning.
His testimony yesterday
a little bit shaky.
His interrogation
put a very big dent in the picture
that Rod Blagojevich had painted
of himself.
Jurors in the corruption trial
of ousted Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich
told a judge they have reached a verdict
on 18 of the 20 counts.
The judge says the verdicts
will be read Monday afternoon.
The announcement came
after nine days of deliberation.
On his way to court
before his fate was known,
the quirky ex-governor was quoting
from his beloved Elvis.
You know, my hands are shaky.
My knees are weak.
I can't seem to stand on my own two feet.
We got notice
that there was a verdict,
and we walked in, and the media comes in,
and we hear this verdict,
then it just becomes a haze.
After the long, unruly saga,
the verdict is in, and it is guilty.
Seventeen charges of corruption,
including an effort to barter
President Obama's old Senate seat.
There's not much left to say
other than, uh,
we want to get home
to our little girls,
and, uh... and-and-and talk to them
and explain things to them, and...
and then try to sort things out.
Rod, Governor, what do you say
to your supporters who are right here?
Enjoy jail!
I think there was one man
on the jury. It was all women.
And, man, those women,
without those tapes to be able
to back up what he was saying,
they just, you know, didn't buy it.
And it was scary.
It was a very scary moment.
We felt it was very clear he was trying
to make a trade for the Senate seat.
The jurors themselves said,
"We want to send a message
that political horse trading is one thing,"
but when one attempts to personally
benefit from that horse trading,
"that's when, uh, one crosses the line."
Blagojevich now faces
a sentencing hearing in August.
He faces a maximum of 300 years in prison.
Just be ready
'cause it could happen any moment.
Oh, whoa! Ben, Ben!
Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go.
Good morning.
How are you feeling today?
Are you gonna be showing
remorse today?
Sentencing day today for former
Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
The prosecution trying to get
15 to 20 years for the former governor.
The governor needs to go in front
of the judge today,
plead his case, tell the judge he's sorry.
Any idea what you're
gonna say today in court, Governor?
Anything you want people to know?
The only time he ever expressed
even a scintilla of remorse
was on that day of the sentencing.
He gave a statement to Judge Zagel
where he apologized.
It came across not super sincere,
but he said sort of the right things.
I think at that point,
it was too little, too late.
The maximum, 15 to 20 years.
If the governor gets
more than ten years,
that would be the largest sentence ever
to be thrown at any politician
in the state of Illinois.
A ruling that will likely
come today.
Blagojevich is still
in the building.
Yeah, you're on speaker.
He's coming down.
Okay, I'm not gonna say anything
about, uh, anything
except something very, very brief.
Patti and I,
and especially me,
this is a time to be strong.
This is a time to fight through adversity.
Uh, this is a time for me to be strong
for my children,
be strong for Patti,
and this is also a time
for Patti and me to get home
so we can explain to our kids,
our babies, Amy and Annie,
what happened, what all this means,
and where we're going from here. So...
That was probably
the first and only time in my life
I actually thought I was gonna faint,
you know,
like when your knees, like, buckle.
It is 14 years in prison
for ousted Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich.
A 14-year sentence?
It's just so outrageous.
Did Rod Blagojevich
do something wrong? Absolutely.
But the 14-year sentence
was a huge miscarriage of justice.
The press strategy horribly backfired
because it just antagonized this judge
and he decided he was gonna make
an example out of him.
That same judge
had handled a mob case
where there was a mob flipper
who had testified
about killing a number of people
and had gotten
about 11 or 12 years based on that.
Jesse Jackson Jr. actually worked a scheme
to pocket campaign contributions
and got two years.
Here's Rod Blagojevich,
who didn't pocket anything,
and he's in prison till 2024,
so is that fair?
I've never been vengeful.
I can count on maybe one or two fingers
how many times I've actually wanted to see
somebody sent off
to be incarcerated
for an extended period of time.
I appreciate the fact
that I caught the person
and brought their activity to light,
but I never took any great pleasure
in seeing the hardships that it caused.
Uh, but then again,
Rod Blagojevich brought this upon himself.
I think it's really wrong
to diminish the significance involved
with campaign finance violations.
There are important restrictions we have
for really important public purposes.
And when you violate those,
you ought to be convicted
and you ought to be sentenced
to the full extent of the law.
If he didn't know what he was doing,
he should have,
and he doesn't deserve our sympathy.
For me, my focus
immediately became my children
and making sure
that they were not irreparably harmed
by this whole ordeal.
And unfortunately, they were
irreparably harmed by this whole ordeal.
My children have scars that are so deep
and that will last them their whole life.
They were going to grow up
without a father.
Now there's only person
in whose hands our fate rests.
Could there now be
a presidential pardon spree?
Today the president said,
"I thought that he was treated unfairly.
He shouldn't have been put in jail."
It all comes down
to the President of the United States.
And what's the best way
to get a message to him
and his... his staff
and his people is to...
try to appear on places
where they're paying attention to.
So here now for an exclusive interview
on the story, Patricia Blagojevich.
Here with us exclusively
are Blagojevich's wife, Patti,
and Chicago attorney Len Goodman.
And what a Justice exclusive
is Patti Blagojevich,
former Illinois governor's wife.
I know that you spoke
with your husband today.
What did he say when he heard this news?
Well, you know, he was
and we are all so grateful
that the president is thinking of us
in this way.
We know that President Trump
is a kind man. He's compassionate.
He knows how important it is
that my husband gets home
to be a father to our daughters,
that we can't help
but, you know, to be hopeful.
It's ironic. It's strange.
Um, it's odd.
No one expected Donald Trump
to be president
and then somehow have the power
to release Rod Blagojevich.
Um, but... but life is strange,
and I see this as a means to an end
and the only means to an end.
Sometimes the courts
and these prosecutors get it wrong,
and it takes a strong leader
like President Trump
to right those wrongs.
I give Patti a lot of credit.
I mean, here is, uh, a loyal wife
who's doing anything she can
to get her husband
and the father of her two daughters home.
And so, I...
Good for you, Patti.
This year,
we will have been married 29 years.
We've been separated the last seven.
But I talk to him every night.
He gets 300 minutes of phone time a month,
so that's, you know, ten minutes a day.
I like the idea of him coming home
and us being back in our house
and just picking back up.
As long as we're all healthy,
anything's possible.
But who knows what the future holds?
Rod Blagojevich could actually
walk out of prison
much sooner than we all think he could.
But I don't expect the Blagojevich
who comes out of there
is gonna be different
than the one who went in.
I think it would be a huge circus deal,
and he would definitely make the rounds,
and go on all the shows,
and talk about his time in prison.
All those things, I think he'd be, uh...
You know, he's probably a personality
that's perfect for right now in America.
He'll want to restate his case
yet again,
and he'll want to try to recreate
his persona
um, so people don't think of him
as the disgraced former governor,
but just as a guy who got a raw deal
from federal prosecutors.
I always joke that if he ever
wants to go back into politics again,
he'll have to do that
with his second wife.
Not the first wife. Um...
I think that part of our lives is over.
And I think that he understands
how you put your family in danger
by going into politics.
We were at the mercy of forces
beyond our control.
You sometimes have to take a deep breath
and realize the blessings you have.
And, you know, I've been blessed
with a wonderful wife and...
Can you imagine
ever being in politics again?
If she's watching this show,
the answer would be no, but if she's not,
no, I'm not ruling out.
I'm not ruling out.
- Go, Rod, go!
- Thank you very much. Thank you.
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
This is a Fox News alert.
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich
is a free man tonight
after eight years in prison.
Moments ago,
President Trump just announced
that he has commuted the sentence
of former Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich.
- Blago is a free man.
- Blagojevich is someone
the president has been considering
commuting his sentence for months now.
It was Patti Blagojevich
and her media appeal directly to Trump
that was convincing.
I watched his wife on television.
Uh, I don't know him very well.
I've met him a couple of times.
He was on, for a short while,
The Apprentice years ago.
Uh, he seemed like a very nice person.
- You should have never gone, buddy.
- I appreciate that.
Rod, how are you feeling?
Rod, how does it feel
to be home?
I'm curious
as to what you think happens next...
Could we see him
in political office again?
He could certainly do it.
You know, he's there, coming out of jail,
shaking hands like a politician.
I think this is the ending
of the first act of a two-act play.
Tomorrow begins the second act,
so that wrongs that have been done
can be righted.
by enthusiastic groups wherever he goes.
He stops to talk with people,
to shake hands, to sign autographs,
and, at times, gets an earful
about the issues.
Rod was a natural talent
in that he loved to jump on something
that would get him on TV.
Joining us tonight, Rod Blagojevich.
The first member of Congress
to alert the public
about the napalm recycling plan.
Congressman Blagojevich
helped negotiate the release
of the three US soldiers.
I don't think we're heroes.
I just think we're looking after our own.
He absolutely embraced
the media's attention.
He lived off of it. He thrived off of it.
That's one of the reasons
he never lost an election.
I think the press is just
a necessary part of the job.
But for Rod Blagojevich,
dealing with the press
really is a double-edged sword.
Governor Blagojevich arrested!
Twenty-five cents!
Governor Rod Blagojevich
is accused of trying to sell
Barack Obama's Senate seat
to the highest bidder.
While he may be the nation's
least popular governor,
he's been the most popular news story.
- Political shame.
- Appalling.
Like a sports agent
shopping the highest bidder.
The governor's own words
describing the Senate seat,
- "I've got this thing."
- "Got this thing."
"I've got this thing
and it's golden."
- "...it's effing golden."
- "...bleeping golden..."
"And I'm not giving it up
for bleeping nothing."
- "For nothing."
- "For nothing." Did you say this?
When somebody gets indicted
in a marriage,
majority of the times, they get divorced.
I suppose I could've packed my kids up
and said,
"Good luck with that.
You know, we're gonna go...
live in Wisconsin,"
or something like that.
"Call us when it's done."
But the thing is,
I couldn't let the father of my children
and my husband for years
fight that battle alone.
I know Rod,
and I know his heart,
and I know his intentions,
and I know that he never intended
to break any law
or commit any crime.
Rod was all about trying
to make things better for people.
When they talk about
term limits for Illinois politicians,
they don't mean how long
they can serve in office.
No, they mean the prison term
that former governor Otto Kerner served
for taking race track stocks
in return for favors.
Or the year and a half
former governor Dan Walker served
for bank fraud after he left office.
Or the six and a half years
former governor George Ryan
is now serving
for selling off licenses and contracts.
Illinois is probably the heavyweight
champion of corruption in that sense.
We've had five governors
that have been indicted in this state.
After years of ethics scandals
and investigations,
there was a man who ran
on an anti-corruption platform.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, as a native
and lifelong resident of Chicago,
I want to welcome
all the delegates and visitors
to this most American of American cities.
So there was a time in Chicago
when Rod Blagojevich was seen by the press
as being skilled as a politician.
And some of my first impressions
of him were...
Yeah, just that he was
really good at it.
He had this really outsized,
likable personality
which was engaging for a lot of people.
Here's this guy
from the neighborhood come in and,
"I'm gonna take down these elites"
who've been in power for 26 years,
"and we're gonna have a new day
in Illinois."
And people are like, "That's my guy."
Rod Blagojevich's history
is very different
from those Chicago politicians
that a lot of people have heard about.
He came from nothing. Five-room apartment,
two-flat in Chicago on the Northwest side.
His dad was an immigrant
from Serbia who worked in factories.
His mom worked for the CTA taking tickets.
Rod, in high school,
went to work on the Alaskan pipeline
because that was the only way
he could get through college
and be there with all
of what he would call "the dilettantes."
He knew the struggles
of regular, solid, blue-collar workers.
He really did come from nobody
and nowhere.
And his only way to push for changes
in how things are done
was to meet people
and to play the political game.
I first met Rod at a fundraiser
for my father.
I had just broken up
with a long-term boyfriend,
like, on a Wednesday.
Rather than feeling sorry for myself,
I decided to go to my dad's fundraiser,
which was on a Sunday.
We were introduced by a mutual friend
at that fundraiser.
So my husband was literally, like,
the rebound.
His car was always getting broken into,
so we're in the car, and there's no radio,
and he was just singing Elvis songs to me.
I thought, you know,
there might be something there.
We ended up dating for a year,
and then were engaged for a year,
and then got married.
At that point, Rod was a young lawyer,
but he always was interested in politics.
I think when he was in fifth grade,
he knew all the presidents
backwards and forwards.
Hi. Rod Blagojevich. How are you?
Nobody really knew
who he was back then,
beyond he married Patti Mell.
He was Alderman Dick Mell's son-in-law.
I have a long family history of politics
here in Chicago.
Dick Mell
is the Chicago political machine.
Just loud, in your face, opinionated,
and just at the center of everything.
Dick Mell was an alderman,
which is a very powerful person
in the Chicago City Council.
And he had this political army
who helped him win elections
and keep power.
A couple of years into our marriage,
my dad needs a candidate
for state representative.
Rod had one question.
"Am I free to vote
the way my conscience urges me to vote?"
My dad said,
"Yeah, I don't care about that."
These were elite politicians
who were in control of everything.
And there were real consequences
to either being a part of the machine
or taking on the machine.
But Rod recognized that was the only way
he could get into politics
and get things done.
Rod was a guy
that was very, very restless.
He just wanted to shake things up,
change things.
But he didn't have any power.
He was a state rep,
very quickly gets bored,
decides he wants to run for Congress.
The well-financed Democrat
with powerful family ties.
Rod, your father-in-law's
a very powerful Chicago alderman.
You wouldn't be in this race
if it weren't for Dick Mell.
It's fair to say
he's been a big help to me.
Rod gets elected to Congress.
What's the first thing
he starts thinking about?
"Maybe I ought to run for governor."
We felt like for Rod to be known
as more than Dick Mell's son-in-law,
you gotta have a million dollars.
We said, "Rod, you get that,
people will start taking you seriously."
He would go anywhere to raise money,
and there were no limits back then.
So he was raising 25,000,
50,000, 100,000 at a time.
One of the most
expensive primaries Illinois has seen.
Amassing a huge
campaign war chest.
Had been in third place...
Blagojevich already has
three million dollars...
- moved up to second place.
- But more is needed.
You'll take PAC money?
We've been raising money.
We play by the rules.
Closing in slowly
on first place...
He had the most money to spend.
And here Rod Blagojevich
learned the lesson
that raising money equals power.
And it changes everything.
The next governor of the state
of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich!
We love you!
By all accounts,
it was a pretty quick rise to power,
ten years from the time
he started in politics
that he was governor of Illinois.
It was crazy
'cause I was only 38 years old
when Rod won for governor.
I was seven months pregnant
with our second child.
So it was a very hopeful time in my life.
- Governor, may God bless you.
- Thank you.
I want to make clear
that business as usual
in Illinois state government
is a thing of the past.
There were two things that Rod liked.
One was winning,
and two was champion the big idea.
He loved to be part
of something innovative.
He was a political entrepreneur.
He was able to do some expansion
of health care for children.
He very famously offered elderly people
free rides on public transportation.
They passed a minimum wage hike.
One of the first states to do that.
He forced pharmacists
to dispense birth control
and not allow their veto
just because of their political beliefs.
He said,
"We're gonna tear down all the tolls.
We're gonna do this open road tolling,"
and it cut commute time for everybody.
And, of course, he couldn't help himself.
His name was on
every one of those open roads.
"Rod Blagojevich, governor."
We were doing the best we could
for the people of Illinois.
And the press was all very good,
you know, at that point.
Charismatic populist
with a possible White House future.
Youngsters clamored
for his autograph this morning.
It was almost like you were,
like, a rock star.
The voters
have overwhelmingly said
they want a second term as governor.
You've gotta wonder,
what is he thinking
of where he'll be going
after this term is over?
You ain't seen nothing yet.
He's got this perfect pathway
to the White House.
But the problem with Rod Blagojevich,
he had overlearned the lesson
of how important raising money was,
and he was willing to do
just about anything to raise money.
There was this real dichotomy
in Rod Blagojevich
as he got more powerful
because Dick Mell
didn't let Rod Blagojevich forget
that he was a bit of a creation
of Dick Mell.
And Rod Blagojevich
wanted to think of himself
as Alexander Hamilton
who came up, you know,
out of absolutely nothing
and made something of himself
all on his own.
Rod Blagojevich wanted to be independent.
And the way to independence in politics
is through money.
Dick Mell was
the primary engine of raising money.
So there was always this tension.
He needed Dick,
but he resented Dick at the same time.
Somewhere along the line,
Rod meets a couple of fundraising people,
and they started working for him.
Every campaign tries to push the envelope
on campaign finance law.
These guys had torn up the envelope,
and they just didn't care.
They were going around
seeking campaign contributions
in exchange for things
that Rod could do as governor,
different contracts,
different appointments.
Blagojevich was steeped in a world
in which seeking to make money
off of your public position is not weird.
I would imagine that types of exchanges
didn't seem criminal, even,
or weird to him.
It seemed like what politicians do.
And all of a sudden,
Rod starts raising this big money...
and said, "I don't need Dick anymore,"
and Dick gets left behind.
From that point on,
we were at odds with my father.
When you have a situation
where family's involved,
there's a recipe for the politics
being brought into the household.
That's not healthy. That's not...
something I'd recommend to people.
At a family dinner in 2004,
Rod's political life starts to unravel.
Dick is very, very resentful of Rod.
He feels like you dance with the one
who brought you to the dance.
And Dick's the jilted suitor here.
My mom was of course on my dad's side,
and I'm of course on my husband's side,
and it was very difficult.
Right after dinner,
Dick says this off-handed statement
to a reporter,
"They're giving away
important committee assignments
for $50,000 apiece."
Boom, it's big headlines.
My father then,
of course, recanted.
But things were forever
gonna be different.
It's not just bad press.
It gets the FBI's attention.
The FBI starts an investigation
with credible indication
that perhaps a crime has occurred.
We were out there
pulling together records,
and we had picked up clear information
that Rod was being very blunt
about trying to raise campaign dollars
in exchange for things
that you could do as the governor.
So the next step was
to get a court order
to go up on Rod Blagojevich's telephones.
A wiretap.
By that point,
his inner circle are under investigation,
and everybody knew it.
If you know you're under investigation
to the level that Rod was at that point,
step number one is to take your phone
and bury it in the backyard
and stay off of it.
And Rod Blagojevich
basically does the opposite.
I think he felt like there's no way
that his phones
would ever be compromised
as the sitting governor,
and that's where he gets into the trouble
is he continues to run his mouth
like he always does.
At that stage,
this was still an investigation
about campaign contributions,
but they started to hear,
"Wait a minute.
What's he doing with the Senate seat?
We need to let some of that run."
When Barack Obama
got elected president,
Rod Blagojevich, as governor,
was the only person who had the power
to appoint Barack Obama's replacement
in the Senate.
And he decided,
essentially,
to start listening to everybody
about what they could offer.
And he started talking
to some of his closest advisers
and speculating and plotting
how to exchange that decision
for something for his benefit.
I got some lady calling my house
for Jesse Jr. a little while ago.
We were approached, pay to play.
That, you know, he'd raise me 500 grand,
an emissary came.
Then the other guy would raise a million
if I made him a senator.
The Jesse Jackson Jr. camp
and some of his supporters
had come forward
and offered to give campaign contributions
in exchange for Jesse Jackson Jr.
Being appointed to the Senate.
There was talk of him deciding to,
you know, "Hey, maybe I can exchange this"
for somebody who Barack Obama wants
to replace him."
- He's talking about Valerie Jarrett?
- Yeah.
- We should get something for that.
- Yes.
How about Health and Human Services?
Can I get that?
UN ambassador, I'd take that.
How about India? India's vital.
Yeah, India's vital.
I'd say India...
Is that realistic,
or would he reject that?
- That's realistic.
- Is it?
- I think so.
- No shit.
They weren't sure
what Rod Blagojevich was gonna do next.
And the prosecutors felt
that if they didn't move quickly,
Rod Blagojevich could actually
appoint somebody senator,
and as soon as he appoints it,
it happens.
I told my nephew, Alan,
he just turned 26 today.
I said, "Alan..."
I called him for his birthday.
And I said, "It's too bad
you're not four years older
'cause I could've given you
a US Senate seat for your birthday."
I mean, I've got this thing,
and it's fucking golden.
And I'm just not giving it up
for fucking nothing.
We had enough
with recordings we obtained,
with telephone records we had pulled,
and we knew it was time
to take the whole case down.
That morning was like that scene
from The Godfather,
where they're doing the baptism
and people are getting murdered
around them.
They went to my brother-in-law.
They went to Rod's chief of staff.
And they just, like, hit everybody
all at the same time.
Dan, myself,
and another agent, Cathy,
approached the door.
And we purposely picked Cathy
because she had training
in hostage negotiation.
The Illinois State Police put a call
into the governor's home.
It was somebody saying,
"It's the FBI. We're at your door.
Let us in."
And I thought it was a joke,
and I said, "Oh, who is this?"
And I hung up the phone.
Called back.
And they said, "No, this is the FBI.
We're downstairs."
Come open the door,
otherwise we'll bust it open."
Patti's state was mostly irritated.
Um, I'd say very irritated.
They brought a SWAT team.
They brought hostage negotiators
with them.
I mean, what did they think?
My husband was gonna
hold his children hostage or some...
I mean, it was the craziest thing.
Rod was on the stairway,
and one thing that struck me as peculiar
that still told me that he wasn't
totally grasping the situation
is before we walked him down the stairs,
he asked me how his hair looked.
And they brought him downstairs,
and the FBI agent said to me,
"Well, we have to get going
because the press isn't here yet."
Blagojevich gets busted.
Read all about it.
Today's headlines
stunned a state
accustomed to politicians in handcuffs.
He's charged
with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud,
extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion,
and making false statements.
The most serious charge alleges
he offered up the appointment
of President Obama's vacated Senate seat
to the highest bidder.
Blagojevich's arrest in Chicago
was obviously a nuclear weapon going off.
The whole world was listening.
Is this the dumbest guy ever?
- What did you call him?
- Blago-away-avich.
Blago-away-avich. I like...
The press,
they like to build you up,
and then start trying to tear you down.
Rod Blagojevich has gone
from being an embattled public official
to a disgraced private citizen.
That will earn him a permanent place
in the political hall of shame.
What a moron this guy is.
Even recently, the governor
characterized himself as a popular guy.
There's any number of critics
who wonder if he's delusional or not.
I talked to a number
of psychiatrists and said,
"Is this guy nuts?"
They came up
with narcissistic personality disorder.
Governor, the suggestion
that you might not be able
to think rationally at this time,
how do you respond to that?
I mean, come on. It's a...
What's...
What's your question?
A Chicago Tribune poll showed
the governor's approval rating at 13%.
With a recent approval rating
of just 4%.
It may be the lowest
in American history.
It's an embarrassment.
The arrogance of Governor Blagojevich
is beyond pale.
And tomorrow's lead editorial,
already posted on the Tribune website,
calls on Blagojevich to resign.
I personally think
he should at least step aside.
I think it's time for him to go,
but unfortunately, I think he's gonna
drag this out as long as he can.
Governor Blagojevich
turned 52 today,
not exactly the best of birthdays.
His once promising political career
now in shambles.
Thank you very much.
I'm here to tell you right off the bat
that I am not guilty
of any criminal wrongdoing,
that I intend to stay on the job,
and I will fight this thing
every step of the way.
I will fight, I will fight, I will fight,
until I take my last breath.
My father called me up and said,
"Come down to the office.
Rod Blagojevich may want to hire us."
And so, I came down,
and it was right then.
I-I fell in love with Rod right then.
My father asked me after the meeting
was over, "Do you want to do it?"
I said, "The governor of the state,
especially that guy, asks us?"
That's an honor
to represent someone like that.
"Yes, I'm in if you're in."
He knew Sam Adam Jr.
Actually from the R. Kelly case.
And he thought,
"If this guy could get R. Kelly off,
then maybe he can help me."
Sam was kind of an extension
of Rod's personality,
very just out there and gregarious
and aggressive.
Point out to me one single action
that's in the criminal complaint here
that says the governor did anything.
Maybe there was talk...
Now, if you're asking me about tapes,
oh, I know the tapes.
- We know the tapes.
- There are no damaging tapes.
When you take an elected official,
a governor,
rip him from his family
at six o'clock in the morning,
and then say he did all these things
but you can't answer it,
is that really where we are?
Conventional wisdom in Chicago
would say,
you get hit with a corruption case
of this size,
dry up immediately. Don't say anything
that's gonna get you in any more trouble.
But the Blagojevich defense team
took the opposite track.
When Rod was arrested,
basically, he had a zero approval rating.
They showed him with this crazy hair,
looking like a common, everyday criminal.
And so, I had to deal with that.
But I'm a salesman.
Typically, my cases,
you have an old, beat-up Chevy
you gotta make look like
a brand-new Mercedes,
but that's the nature of the business.
And so we tried to get back to even.
Just...
All we wanted was people to listen.
Hi. How are you?
The former Illinois governor
came to New York today
to launch a media campaign.
The Fox and Friends morning show
was the first of a flurry
of even more media interviews today.
He's doing everything
but stick his head in the sand
as he continues to make the rounds
and his case before the media.
When it came to media strategy,
uh, you had an individual
who wanted to speak.
"You don't just
give it away for nothing."
Are these your words?
That's subject to many interpretations.
That could mean I want them
to help us pass health care...
Politics and routine politics
and political horse trading
and discussing what may
or may not be available,
- uh, is how the business works.
- You think that's just routine politics?
Absolutely.
- I did nothing wrong.
- I'm not guilty of criminal wrongdoing.
- Just say, "I am not a crook." Do it.
- No, I'm not gonna say that.
Part of the strategy
was to put him on TV
'cause he still had
this outsized, likable personality.
Hi. I'm Rod Blagojevich.
I'm backstage
at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Please welcome Rod...
Make people laugh.
Make him a sympathetic character
because they thought that
that could ultimately play out in court.
Governor Rod Blagojevich is talking on TV
as he did all day yesterday.
This, we believe,
is the best possible forum that I have.
I saw you on The View.
I saw you on the Today Show.
I saw you on, I think, every other show
that is in production currently.
Many believe this media blitz
is an attempt to influence
potential jurors.
Well, you wonder
whether that's strategy
or whether
he just likes to be on television.
During the pretrial
media strategy,
Rod did become the butt of the joke.
This seat that you're sitting on
right now,
- you could sell this vacant seat...
- Okay.
On Ebay.
You can own
Rod Blagojevich's empty seat.
And the winner gets a clump of Blago hair
found between the cushions.
That being said,
it's better to be the butt of the joke
than to be a criminal.
So, we saw this as improving his position.
This governor has violated
his oath of office.
This governor has breached
the public trust.
This governor must be impeached,
and I urge your "aye" vote.
Rod Blagojevich
is no longer the governor of Illinois.
He was ousted from office late today
after being convicted by the state senate.
Hours before the vote,
Blagojevich made a plea.
You guys are in politics.
You know what we have to do
to go out and run, and run elections.
But his performance
didn't seem to change any minds here.
I now pronounce the judgment of conviction
against Rod R. Blagojevich,
with his removal from office as governor.
The senate also voted to bar him
from ever holding state office again.
As a matter of fact,
we understand
they've already changed the locks
on the doors to this governor's office
behind me here.
Governor, he's taken away
your right to earn money. How do you feel?
What are you gonna do
about legal defense?
Governor, do you have
prospects for a job to pay the bills?
You know, obviously, I'm very interested
in, uh, finding a way to earn a living
so I can support my children and, uh...
and, uh... our family and, uh...
Was this the toughest day yet?
No, it's not.
It's time for a new deal.
It's time to get back to work.
It's time for The Celebrity Apprentice.
With Rod Blagojevich.
- I'll do anything.
- Right.
Legal and ethical and honest.
Rod Blagojevich's defense team
very purposefully decided
that they were gonna turn him
into even more of a celebrity
than he already was.
The way you think, I should've
had you when I was in politics.
- That's all I'm saying.
- Yeah.
First thing I would've told you,
"Hang up the phone. Rod!
Hang up the phone, man."
The defense wanted to put him on TV
and make a national personality
out of him
because they saw the OJ case,
the R. Kelly case.
How about taking a picture with me here?
They knew
that in the American system,
it's a higher bar
to convict a celebrity for sure.
I have great respect for your tenacity,
for the fact that you just don't give up.
But, Rod, you're fired.
The top ten questions
Rod Blagojevich asked himself
before appearing on Celebrity Apprentice.
Number ten.
- "Can I get paid in shampoo?"
- Yeah.
When the media tour first started,
people started saying,
"He's nuts. He's crazy. Blago's crazy."
And then they started saying,
"Well, you know what?"
There's gotta be something to this
'cause no man's gonna go
around the country for a year and a half
"and claim his innocence."
And by the time we got to, uh, trial,
the polling showed 50/50.
Fifty people were coming in
believing that he was guilty.
Fifty said, "You know what?"
Maybe Blago's innocent."
And so, it gave me real confidence.
It gave my father real confidence
to go into that trial with that strategy.
The corruption trial
of Rod Blagojevich opens this morning.
- Sleep well last night?
- I slept great.
You tend to forget Blagojevich
could spend years behind bars
if he's convicted
because he seems to have made
such a mockery of the pretrial process.
Judge James Zagel
warned Blagojevich
against making daily statements
to the press
and Twittering updates from the courtroom.
He does have a following.
And in the criminal context,
he just needs one person.
- Good luck.
- Thank you. Appreciate that. Really?
- Good luck, Rod.
- Thanks, man.
- You're not guilty.
- Thanks, man.
Inside the US attorney's office,
this was being handled
by very experienced, very tough people.
Their best of the best.
In opening arguments,
US attorney Carrie Hamilton
included the Senate seat
in a series of alleged shakedowns
establishing a trend.
"What about me?
What's in it for me?"
The US government
had such a complicated case
that there was a lot of minutiae
that the jury was asked to deal with.
Trying to connect the dots
between Blagojevich and a...
witness after witness...
be a quid pro quo rewarding friends.
This trial is not expected
to go by quickly.
They were relying a lot
on what was known as honest services,
the legal expectation
that an elected official
owes the public
governing free from corruption,
and that that had been violated.
The presentation of that was really
kind of winding and complicated,
and the jury probably
didn't understand it.
More of the same,
the slow, tedious, but careful process.
Today, a little boring.
I think that's a fair word.
So you had the US government
coming in very kind of bookish,
and what they wound up facing
was really a street fight.
You had Sam Adam Jr.
Coming from the world
of the criminal court in Chicago,
26th Street, where it's bare knuckle,
and I think that caught
the federal prosecutors off-guard.
In a loud, rambling opening
fit for the theater,
defense attorney Sam Adam Jr.
Mentioned Blagojevich's now famous hair.
Sam Adam Jr.
Shouted at the jury...
waving his arm,
pointing his fingers...
using a fire
and brimstone approach,
said the governor was the victim.
All of the articles said,
"They're 26th Street clowns."
What we were trying to do is be regular.
You gotta be regular.
These are people
who get up in the morning,
put on their pants one leg at a time
and go to work.
They're not gonna see
these technical laws
and all that and think,
"Oh, well, this one has a comma here.
This one has a semicolon.
What does that mean?"
And so, our entire defense was
all of this was political horse trading.
You may not like it,
you may want to change it,
but that's politics.
There are a lot of other people
that profited from this corruption.
We actually used evidence
we gathered against him
to help convince him to cooperate with us.
But you just don't know
what's gonna happen when you're in court.
Lon, was it difficult
to testify against Blagojevich?
Their witness, Lon Monk,
was Rod's chief of staff.
He said he was taking money himself.
The US attorney asked him, "So how much
of that money did you give Rod?"
And he said,
"Oh, I would never give Rod any money
or tell him I took any money
'cause that's not who Rod is."
Right there, that's it.
If you are his best friend
and you're taking money
but you refuse to give it to him,
so what are we doing here?
What are we talking about?
He didn't get any money, not one dime.
But you under stand, it's very
important for me to make a lot of money.
I need the independence.
I-I-I need the freedom.
Okay? And then I have a personal issue,
which is
I feel like I'm fucking my children.
That's what I feel like.
The whole world's passing me by.
And Amy's going to college
in six years.
Amy's going to college,
and we can't afford it.
They claim all these crimes
and not once is money exchanged.
This is a little mystifying to me.
Sam just pounded on that.
If he's supposedly making all this money,
where are the fancy cars?
Where are the vacations?
This guy can't even afford
to send his kids to college.
That's why he's, you know,
complaining about needing money
and trying to get a job running
a charitable organization or something
in exchange for the Senate seat.
It's because he doesn't have enough money.
So, if he's a criminal,
he's not very good at it.
What's your level of confidence
your client walks out of this building
an innocent man?
A hundred percent. Twelve to zero.
A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent.
After five weeks
of presenting testimony,
prosecutors in the corruption trial
of Rod Blagojevich
have rested their case.
A jury will decide if Illinois
will send its second straight governor
to prison.
If convicted, he could face
up to six million dollars in fines
and a sentence of 415 years in prison.
Have you thought about
what life would be like for you in prison
if, in fact, you get convicted?
I'm human. Of course sometimes
you get those moments.
Glancing at my little six-year-old,
sitting at her kindergarten graduation
around the circle with her classmates
and wondering whether or not
I might not be able to see some of that
as the years go on.
But those are just little moments.
I know what the truth is,
and I'll be fully vindicated.
Reporting tonight,
George Stephanopoulos.
Good evening. For two weeks,
the fate of former Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich
has been in the hands of six men
and six women
in a Chicago courthouse.
Late today, the divided jury
returned its verdict:
Guilty on only one count
in the corruption trial.
Deadlocked on 23 other charges.
Blagojevich was convicted
of lying to federal agents.
But the jury could not reach a verdict
on 23 other corruption charges.
Among them,
attempting to sell the US Senate seat
once held by President Obama.
This is a stunning verdict.
A major victory for Blagojevich.
A stunning upset for federal prosecutors.
I think there was a sense
of overconfidence by the government.
And the defense did a really good job
of getting back to the simple concept:
Follow the money.
And there wasn't a dime
the prosecution showed
went into Blagojevich's pocket.
It was all talk.
So, you know, was he a bad governor
or a criminal?
We'll be seeing you around. Okay.
How you doing, man?
Good. It's good.
- Okay, good luck.
- You're great, man. Thanks.
None of it's true.
Okay. Now we can really say it
when it matters, you know?
See you, guys.
We were elated for the hung jury,
but there was very much a sense of dread
because you knew
they were gonna come back at you again,
and they weren't gonna let it rest.
They were coming right back.
Going into a second trial,
most people believed
that we were going into a worse position
because we knew
that the government would clean up
any errors that they made.
And then, we certainly had
a much smaller team.
The government got to know
my father and I
and the lawyer tricks, if you...
For lack of a better term.
And how we were gonna present evidence.
And so, the best thing for Rod
was to have the second in command,
Aaron Goldstein, come in
and step to the forefront.
I decided to stay from the first trial
to the second trial
'cause I don't leave my clients.
I don't believe in abandoning them.
And that's just a fundamental belief
of mine.
Ready for round two?
I've waited a long time
to get the vindication that I deserve
and that I owe to the people of Illinois.
With jury selection
underway in Chicago,
Rod Blagojevich made his first appearance
at a second federal corruption trial
Thursday.
Blagojevich says
he is more optimistic than ever
of a future not behind bars.
The second trial changed
a significant amount.
And... and one
of the most significant changes
was the prosecution
really streamlined their case,
and they focused primarily
just on the recorded conversations.
We didn't know necessarily
that they were gonna do it that way.
Um, they just sort of sprung it on us
from day one.
The government came out swinging.
They recorded many hundreds of hours
of his phone calls,
and they were able to pick and choose
because they were the ones trying to prove
his guilt or not.
Do they think I would just appoint
Valerie Jarrett for nothing?
Just to make him happy?
- Give this mother his senator?
- Him.
For nothing? Him.
The judge was not letting in
a whole bunch of other tapes
that Rod Blagojevich felt
were helpful to him.
From the very beginning, I said,
"Play all the tapes."
When was it that you've ever heard the guy
who's accused of wrongdoing saying,
"Play all the evidence"?
He felt hamstrung by not being able
to present some of the calls
which sound a lot more political.
There are only so many conversations
to sell the Senate seat.
And then there are 50 other times
you're talking about a political deal.
He thought
that would communicate to the jury
that his intent was more
the political deal
versus something criminal.
Right behind me,
that is Blagojevich making his way...
He was essentially
put into a corner
where the only way he was going to explain
what he did was not wrong
and was just politics
was to get on the stand.
This has been a long
and very difficult journey for Patti,
for our daughters, Amy and Annie,
and for me, of course.
I've waited two and a half years
to finally get a chance
to get on the witness stand
and... and tell the truth,
uh, and to, uh, take as long as it takes
to, uh, answer every question
as honestly and as fully as possible.
He really felt like
he could convince anybody in any room
that he was who he says he was.
He had been doing it
for his entire time in politics,
so he had that confidence.
But the very first question
Reid Schar asked him was,
"You're a convicted liar, aren't you?"
Which of course put Rod Blagojevich
immediately on the defensive
because he was indeed a convicted liar.
Rod Blagojevich did his politician thing
as best as he could,
but unlike talking to the press,
he couldn't go on and on and on
and answer whatever question he wanted to.
Reid Schar was not going to take any BS.
And you've got the judge telling him,
"You have to answer that question."
It became a very difficult situation
for Blagojevich.
You could be likable,
you could kind of put yourself
out there on television,
but that only goes so far
when a jury is actually looking
at the details of the case.
You can't literally
talk your way out of everything.
And that created moments
where jurors were rolling their eyes.
One lady, you know,
told the Tribune afterward
she was drawing pictures of her cats
while he was testifying.
So it did not have the outcome
that he wanted.
Rod Blagojevich
was clearly knocked off stride
by prosecutors'
very aggressive questioning.
His testimony yesterday
a little bit shaky.
His interrogation
put a very big dent in the picture
that Rod Blagojevich had painted
of himself.
Jurors in the corruption trial
of ousted Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich
told a judge they have reached a verdict
on 18 of the 20 counts.
The judge says the verdicts
will be read Monday afternoon.
The announcement came
after nine days of deliberation.
On his way to court
before his fate was known,
the quirky ex-governor was quoting
from his beloved Elvis.
You know, my hands are shaky.
My knees are weak.
I can't seem to stand on my own two feet.
We got notice
that there was a verdict,
and we walked in, and the media comes in,
and we hear this verdict,
then it just becomes a haze.
After the long, unruly saga,
the verdict is in, and it is guilty.
Seventeen charges of corruption,
including an effort to barter
President Obama's old Senate seat.
There's not much left to say
other than, uh,
we want to get home
to our little girls,
and, uh... and-and-and talk to them
and explain things to them, and...
and then try to sort things out.
Rod, Governor, what do you say
to your supporters who are right here?
Enjoy jail!
I think there was one man
on the jury. It was all women.
And, man, those women,
without those tapes to be able
to back up what he was saying,
they just, you know, didn't buy it.
And it was scary.
It was a very scary moment.
We felt it was very clear he was trying
to make a trade for the Senate seat.
The jurors themselves said,
"We want to send a message
that political horse trading is one thing,"
but when one attempts to personally
benefit from that horse trading,
"that's when, uh, one crosses the line."
Blagojevich now faces
a sentencing hearing in August.
He faces a maximum of 300 years in prison.
Just be ready
'cause it could happen any moment.
Oh, whoa! Ben, Ben!
Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go.
Good morning.
How are you feeling today?
Are you gonna be showing
remorse today?
Sentencing day today for former
Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
The prosecution trying to get
15 to 20 years for the former governor.
The governor needs to go in front
of the judge today,
plead his case, tell the judge he's sorry.
Any idea what you're
gonna say today in court, Governor?
Anything you want people to know?
The only time he ever expressed
even a scintilla of remorse
was on that day of the sentencing.
He gave a statement to Judge Zagel
where he apologized.
It came across not super sincere,
but he said sort of the right things.
I think at that point,
it was too little, too late.
The maximum, 15 to 20 years.
If the governor gets
more than ten years,
that would be the largest sentence ever
to be thrown at any politician
in the state of Illinois.
A ruling that will likely
come today.
Blagojevich is still
in the building.
Yeah, you're on speaker.
He's coming down.
Okay, I'm not gonna say anything
about, uh, anything
except something very, very brief.
Patti and I,
and especially me,
this is a time to be strong.
This is a time to fight through adversity.
Uh, this is a time for me to be strong
for my children,
be strong for Patti,
and this is also a time
for Patti and me to get home
so we can explain to our kids,
our babies, Amy and Annie,
what happened, what all this means,
and where we're going from here. So...
That was probably
the first and only time in my life
I actually thought I was gonna faint,
you know,
like when your knees, like, buckle.
It is 14 years in prison
for ousted Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich.
A 14-year sentence?
It's just so outrageous.
Did Rod Blagojevich
do something wrong? Absolutely.
But the 14-year sentence
was a huge miscarriage of justice.
The press strategy horribly backfired
because it just antagonized this judge
and he decided he was gonna make
an example out of him.
That same judge
had handled a mob case
where there was a mob flipper
who had testified
about killing a number of people
and had gotten
about 11 or 12 years based on that.
Jesse Jackson Jr. actually worked a scheme
to pocket campaign contributions
and got two years.
Here's Rod Blagojevich,
who didn't pocket anything,
and he's in prison till 2024,
so is that fair?
I've never been vengeful.
I can count on maybe one or two fingers
how many times I've actually wanted to see
somebody sent off
to be incarcerated
for an extended period of time.
I appreciate the fact
that I caught the person
and brought their activity to light,
but I never took any great pleasure
in seeing the hardships that it caused.
Uh, but then again,
Rod Blagojevich brought this upon himself.
I think it's really wrong
to diminish the significance involved
with campaign finance violations.
There are important restrictions we have
for really important public purposes.
And when you violate those,
you ought to be convicted
and you ought to be sentenced
to the full extent of the law.
If he didn't know what he was doing,
he should have,
and he doesn't deserve our sympathy.
For me, my focus
immediately became my children
and making sure
that they were not irreparably harmed
by this whole ordeal.
And unfortunately, they were
irreparably harmed by this whole ordeal.
My children have scars that are so deep
and that will last them their whole life.
They were going to grow up
without a father.
Now there's only person
in whose hands our fate rests.
Could there now be
a presidential pardon spree?
Today the president said,
"I thought that he was treated unfairly.
He shouldn't have been put in jail."
It all comes down
to the President of the United States.
And what's the best way
to get a message to him
and his... his staff
and his people is to...
try to appear on places
where they're paying attention to.
So here now for an exclusive interview
on the story, Patricia Blagojevich.
Here with us exclusively
are Blagojevich's wife, Patti,
and Chicago attorney Len Goodman.
And what a Justice exclusive
is Patti Blagojevich,
former Illinois governor's wife.
I know that you spoke
with your husband today.
What did he say when he heard this news?
Well, you know, he was
and we are all so grateful
that the president is thinking of us
in this way.
We know that President Trump
is a kind man. He's compassionate.
He knows how important it is
that my husband gets home
to be a father to our daughters,
that we can't help
but, you know, to be hopeful.
It's ironic. It's strange.
Um, it's odd.
No one expected Donald Trump
to be president
and then somehow have the power
to release Rod Blagojevich.
Um, but... but life is strange,
and I see this as a means to an end
and the only means to an end.
Sometimes the courts
and these prosecutors get it wrong,
and it takes a strong leader
like President Trump
to right those wrongs.
I give Patti a lot of credit.
I mean, here is, uh, a loyal wife
who's doing anything she can
to get her husband
and the father of her two daughters home.
And so, I...
Good for you, Patti.
This year,
we will have been married 29 years.
We've been separated the last seven.
But I talk to him every night.
He gets 300 minutes of phone time a month,
so that's, you know, ten minutes a day.
I like the idea of him coming home
and us being back in our house
and just picking back up.
As long as we're all healthy,
anything's possible.
But who knows what the future holds?
Rod Blagojevich could actually
walk out of prison
much sooner than we all think he could.
But I don't expect the Blagojevich
who comes out of there
is gonna be different
than the one who went in.
I think it would be a huge circus deal,
and he would definitely make the rounds,
and go on all the shows,
and talk about his time in prison.
All those things, I think he'd be, uh...
You know, he's probably a personality
that's perfect for right now in America.
He'll want to restate his case
yet again,
and he'll want to try to recreate
his persona
um, so people don't think of him
as the disgraced former governor,
but just as a guy who got a raw deal
from federal prosecutors.
I always joke that if he ever
wants to go back into politics again,
he'll have to do that
with his second wife.
Not the first wife. Um...
I think that part of our lives is over.
And I think that he understands
how you put your family in danger
by going into politics.
We were at the mercy of forces
beyond our control.
You sometimes have to take a deep breath
and realize the blessings you have.
And, you know, I've been blessed
with a wonderful wife and...
Can you imagine
ever being in politics again?
If she's watching this show,
the answer would be no, but if she's not,
no, I'm not ruling out.
I'm not ruling out.
- Go, Rod, go!
- Thank you very much. Thank you.
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
Go, Rod, go! Go, Rod, go!
This is a Fox News alert.
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich
is a free man tonight
after eight years in prison.
Moments ago,
President Trump just announced
that he has commuted the sentence
of former Illinois governor
Rod Blagojevich.
- Blago is a free man.
- Blagojevich is someone
the president has been considering
commuting his sentence for months now.
It was Patti Blagojevich
and her media appeal directly to Trump
that was convincing.
I watched his wife on television.
Uh, I don't know him very well.
I've met him a couple of times.
He was on, for a short while,
The Apprentice years ago.
Uh, he seemed like a very nice person.
- You should have never gone, buddy.
- I appreciate that.
Rod, how are you feeling?
Rod, how does it feel
to be home?
I'm curious
as to what you think happens next...
Could we see him
in political office again?
He could certainly do it.
You know, he's there, coming out of jail,
shaking hands like a politician.
I think this is the ending
of the first act of a two-act play.
Tomorrow begins the second act,
so that wrongs that have been done
can be righted.