President Donald Trump is expected to issue a pardon to former Celebrity Apprentice contestant and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Axios reported.
The move comes almost exactly five years after Trump first cut Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence on federal corruption charges short in 2020.
Blagojevich, 68, served eight years in prison because of his efforts to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after Obama won the 2008 presidential election.
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Blagojevich was a Celebrity Apprentice contestant on the reality television show back in 2010, drawing praise from Trump was he was “fired.”
In 2011, he was convicted on corruption charges.
Later, in his capacity as president, Trump drew parallels between the investigation into his behavior and Blagojevich’s case.
Blagojevich was actually a Democrat while in office and publicly started supporting Trump in the 2024 election, as well as attending the Republican National Convention last year. He defended Trump when the latter was indicted in the New York hush money case.
“I love Trump more today than ever!” Blagojevich wrote on social media at the time. “When you’ve lived through it yourself you recognize when they do it to someone else.”
