Weeks after President Donald Trump raised her hopes over a reduced prison sentence for her husband, Patti Blagojevich took to social media on Thursday to ask about the lack of “outrage” over the dropping of charges against former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock.
On Facebook and on Twitter, the former first lady of Illinois wrote, “Wire fraud, mail fraud, falsifying documents, theft of government money tax evasion ... 0 DAYS IN JAIL — ALL CHARGES DROPPED IN SWEETHEART DEAL WITH FEDS.
“I cannot even wrap my head around this — six months of probation vs. 14 years for Rod,” Patti Blagojevich wrote while tagging Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Republican Congressional delegation. “Where is the outrage??”
Schock, the former Republican congressman from Peoria, walked away from a public corruption case with no conviction on Wednesday. Schock resigned in 2015 under a cloud of suspicion surrounding tens of thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements for his personal vehicle and a gaudy congressional office redecoration — to the theme of “Downton Abbey.”
Shock struck a deal with prosecutors in March, putting his case on hold for six months during which he was required to meet certain conditions and remain under court supervision. That probationary period ended Wednesday, with U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly ordering the indictment dismissed.
https://twitter.com/pblagojevich/status/1169676401764683777?s=20
This isn’t the first time Patti Blagojevich has expressed her outrage at others and their convictions and sentences in comparison to the punishment given her husband, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In January, she tweeted that she was “speechless” that Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to only 81 months for killing Laquan McDonald.
“I am speechless,” Patti Blagojevich tweeted. “A 17 year old is dead and the sentence is less than half of my husbands sentence for discussions with his staff and attorney about political fundraising.”
Though an appellate court tossed five of Rod Blagojevich’s convictions in 2015, federal prosecutors say he remains convicted “of the same three charged shakedowns” for which he was first sentenced in 2011.
Those include his attempt to sell then-President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, to shake down the CEO of Children’s Memorial Hospital for $25,000 in campaign contributions and to hold up a bill to benefit the racetrack industry for $100,000 in campaign contributions. A jury also convicted Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.
For more than a year, Patti Blagojevich had been praising Trump and blaming her husband’s plight on some of the president’s favorite scapegoats in a clear campaign to free her husband.
“She’s one hell of a woman,” the president said on Aug. 7 of the former Illinois first lady.
Trump said that, and made other flattering comments about Patti Blagojevich, as he said he might commute the prison sentence of her husband, possibly bringing him closer to freedom than he’s been in years.
“I watched [Blagojevich’s] wife, on television, saying that the young girl’s father has been in jail for now seven years, and they’ve never seen him outside of an orange uniform,” Trump said. “You know, the whole thing. His wife, I think, is fantastic. And I’m thinking about commuting his sentence very strongly. I think he was — I think it’s enough: seven years.”
On Aug. 8 a commutation by Trump seemed hours from coming to fruition, only to come to a halt that same night with Trump suddenly decided to put on the brakes.
Trump said in a tweet, “White House staff” is still reviewing the former governor’s case.
Rod Blagojevich’s attorney, Leonard Goodman, is a member of the investor group that purchased the Chicago Sun-Times in 2017.
