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Notes -
Can somebody explain Blagojevich pardon to me? Like, why Trump feels the need to pardon him and what justification is for that? Frankly, I didn't bother to look into the matter back when he was arrested because I assumed it's pretty usual stuff for Chicago, he's just one of corrupt politicians that Chicago is full of - was I wrong? Is he somehow useful for Trump? How?
I always had the impression that Blago took the fall for Obama, and got hung out to dry rather than rewarded for it. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump had dealings with people on his side of the business.
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It seems like there’s a pattern in what forms of corruption are acceptable on the right -
Diverting taxpayer money to family members or pet causes: Evil, ought to get you thrown out of a helicopter.
Selling the performance of official acts to private interests for money or other services: No big deal. Everybody does it. Just an excuse to railroad somebody like they did to Trump.
Could you mention more examples of this? I am not sure what to think of Blago case, because bribery cases may be very subjective if there's no hard evidence, and it's easy to abuse it, especially given how politics work - people always work with people that align with their interests, and often profit from that, at which point does it turn to bribery? Of course, "I'll pay you $1M and you appoint me the senator" is bribery, but is that what happened in Blago case? A lot of people say it's not so I'm not so sure anymore, I didn't dig deeper into it. But is Trump really OK with bribery, excepting this case - what other cases support this?
Eric Adams is the big one in the news lately. He instructed fire marshals to look the other way on Turkey's NYC skyscraper in exchange for free first-class Turkish Airlines flights. Trump told the Justice Department to drop the case.
There was also the first impeachment of Trump himself. If wikipedia is to be believed, Trump tried to exchange military aid for political favors from Ukraine.
This is literally what politics is. I mean, the whole justification of why US is giving out aid to other countries is to reach certain political goals, isn't it? Given that Biden literally bragged about using the same aid to the same Ukraine for reaching his political goals, it can't be taken as anything but purely political powerplay.
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Sounds to me like Trump feels like Blago is a kindred spirit unjustly persecuted by his political enemies. I don't think it goes much beyond that but you could make the argument that he's sending a message about lawfare. Blago has said in the past that he's a "Trumpocrat" so he's a supporter
I'm sure there are a lot of people who got railroaded for one reason or another. In the environment like Chicago politics, there's a lot of mutual back scratching happening, and with certain prosecutorial creativity it's probably not hard to convert it into a criminal case. Trump is not going to pardon all of them, is he? And despite what Blago says now about Trump - which he has a lot of motive to say, as it profits him - he seems to be a pretty run of the mill Democrat, and one with zero power as it seems currently. Is that really just personal sentiment on Trump's side? I didn't place him as an overly sentimental person.
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