Republican lawmakers in Illinois are taking a stand against the President of the United States on an issue. Congressmen Darin LaHood , John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis , and Mike Bost released a statement against the commutation of the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Citing “pay-for-play” politics as a dangerous precedent, the Republican delegation asked President Trump to continue to leave the former governor’s sentence alone. They also noted that 4 of the last 8 governors of the state of Illinois had been federally indicted. The statement reiterates a similar letter they sent to the president in June 2018.
President Trump spoke about possibly commuting the former governor to reporters on Air Force One yesterday after visiting victims of the most recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio yesterday. The president said that he believed Blagojevich had been treated to an unfair sentence. Blagojevich has a past relationship with the president, having appeared for a short time on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010 while he was under federal investigation for selling former President Barrack Obama’s Illinois Senate seat.
