Rod Blagojevich has thoughts about the Trump trials

“President Trump has each crushed to beryllium testy with that judge,” Blagojevich said connected Tuesday. “Here’s different illustration of however brave helium is, consenting to basal up and bash what he’s doing successful beforehand of the judge, who’s going to really marque a ruling and determination connected his case.”

He besides lauded Trump for “the benignant of chutzpah helium shows … close determination successful the lion’s den.”

In Trump, Blagojevich recognizes a kindred spirit. He told POLITICO that Trump is simply a unfortunate of overzealous prosecutors, conscionable arsenic Blagojevich believes helium was successful his ain case. The erstwhile Illinois politician was convicted of 17 charges, including ligament fraud and conspiracy to solicit bribes, and impeached by an overwhelming ballot of the Illinois Legislature.

“It’s a classical lawsuit of weaponized prosecutors, whether they’re national oregon adjacent elected, and hyperpartisan persecutions against governmental figures. And it started with what they did to maine … to a Democratic governor,” Blagojevich said. “They’ve taken it to the adjacent level now. And the Democrats are present doing it to the erstwhile Republican president and starring Republican campaigner for president.”

Blagojevich insists these prosecutions are threatening the sanctity of American institutions.

“This is the caller politics. And this volition destruct our country. This is turning our state into a third-world banana republic. It’s turning america into Russia and the Soviet Union,” Blagojevich said. “Our caller authorities is constabulary authorities politics. That’s what this is.”

Blagojevich has ever maintained his innocence and tried to attest connected his ain behalf successful the 2011 retrial. He insists helium was sandbagged by a justice who blocked his efforts to attest that the deals helium was making were “legal, regular and necessary, and however authorities works” and that determination were FBI tapes that would person exonerated him. The territory tribunal justice precluded Blagojevich from testifying to that connected ineligible grounds.

Despite that experience, helium inactive believes that politicians should instrumentality the basal erstwhile connected proceedings retired of an work to the public.

“When you’re innocent, and you didn’t bash it, and you were elected to a precocious bureau similar governor, oregon president, I deliberation those of america successful those positions person a work to get up determination and accidental you didn’t bash it,” Blagojevich said. “And if you’re innocent, you should get up determination and accidental it.”

When asked this play if helium had immoderate proposal for Trump up of his testimony, Blagojevich said: “He doesn’t request my advice, due to the fact that he’s doing it.”

“Embrace the truth. Be strong. Get up determination and combat for the truth, adjacent though you’re going into an arena that’s stacked against you,” Blagojevich said, adding that helium believes past volition look favorably upon Trump’s “heroic” defiance of the charges.

Given that Trump commuted his sentence, it’d beryllium casual to cull Blagojevich’s defence of Trump arsenic the ex-governor simply returning the favor, but Blagojevich is consistent.

He’s skeptical astir the investigations into Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, arguing that, adjacent though “it definite does look similar there’s immoderate things that aren’t close there,” it’s a akin lawsuit of prosecutors feeding into “this aggravated tendency to destruct radical politically done the transgression process.”

And politicized investigations aside, determination is 1 elected authoritative who Blagojevich says deserves the scrutiny from national investigators.

“Unless you person thing that’s truthful evidently corrupt, you know, probable origin on the lines of, let’s say, $480,000 successful currency and $150,000 successful golden bars successful your location arsenic a United States senator,” Blagojevich said, referring to the national indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) for allegedly taking bribes successful speech for helping the Egyptian government.

“Unless you got thing similar that, absorption connected the argumentation portion of governing,” helium advised.

Blagojevich says the occupation helium describes is solvable: Congress could exert its oversight powers to rein successful abuses from prosecutors. But helium says it would instrumentality “the Jerry Nadlers of the satellite joining hands with Jim Jordan and putting speech their partisan differences for the larger bully of our state and our democracy.”

He’s not excessively optimistic that volition happen.

“That’s the solution, I think, successful the contiguous term,” helium said. “But bash I deliberation it’s going to happen? I bash not. It astir surely volition not.”