Tag Archives: presidential pardon power

POTUS goes to war with justice system

Donald John Trump has gone on the warpath.

His latest weapon of choice is the presidential pardon power, which he invoked this week by commuting the prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Yep, the president calls a phone call that the governor made a “perfect call,” just as he described the phone call that got him impeached for abuse of power.

All Blagojevich did was offer a vacant U.S. Senate seat for money to the highest bidder. Where I come from, that personifies political corruption at its lowest. According to Trump, the call was perfect.

Actually, it was perfectly reprehensible, disgusting, corrupt.

So now he gets to walk out of prison. Blagojevich called himself a “political prisoner.” He was nothing of the kind. The former governor, a Democrat, conducted a slimy political shakedown in which he got caught. Period. End of story.

Except that it isn’t. He gets to walk away.

Disgraceful.