Meanwhile, Rod Blagojevich says he blames himself for the position his family is in and is working to make amends.
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As Zagel announced his decision around noon, after a morning of testimony, Blagojevich, who appeared in court via streaming video, shook his head.
Prosecutors have told a federal judge that the dismissal of five counts against Rod Blagojevich in no way diminishes the seriousness of his offenses.
“I recognize my words and actions led me here”, he told the court.
During the years he’s been incarcerated, Blagojevich has learned to play guitar, according to court documents.
“When I look around the country, and I look here locally, even other people who have been convicted of crimes where they enriched themselves – in Jesse Jackson [Jr.]’s case, $750,000, and he only gets a year-and-a-half – there is a great disparity of equal justice, sadly, in my brother’s case, and it concerns me as an American citizen”, he said. Blagojevich has served four years.
Speaking without notes, Blagojevich said he had been too ambitious and recognized he erred by fighting too many battles in public.
“I need him more than ever”, Annie said. In a letter submitted to the judge on Monday, Patti detailed that that the former governor speaks with the family via telephone on a nightly basis. “I’ve made many mistakes”, he said via a closed-circuit television feed from his prison in Colorado.
“I am sympathetic to [his family], but as I said four years ago, the fault lies with the governor”, U.S. District Judge James Zagel said before making his ruling.
In his strongest statement of remorse to date, Blagojevich conceded last month that he was not blameless in his fundraising efforts, that he “regrets his conduct, which was distasteful or worse and showed extremely poor judgment”.
The sentence: 14 years. The defense wants it slashed to five years. He highlighted his work with fellow inmates.
The former governor wiped tears from his eyes as his daughters took the stand.
“I nearly don’t want to grow up because I want to wait for him to come home”, Amy told the court.
Twenty-year-old Amy Blagojevich told the court it’s been hard to remain close with her father.
“I don’t dispute [the governor] may be a model prisoner”, Zagel said.
Blagojevich pursed his lips, weeping as his daughters spoke in court.
Goodman told the judge that the remaining charges against the ex-governor are “significantly different”, emphasizing that Blagojevich never profited from his actions.
A federal appeals court ordered the resentencing a year ago after dismissing some of the counts on which Blagojevich was convicted.
Rod Blagojevich’s defense attorney says the former IL governor’s corruption case is “no longer about selling his office for personal gain”.
Leonard Goodman, Blagojevich’s attorney, opened up the possibility of taking the case to the Supreme Court.
Blagojevich’s attorneys have asked the judge for a five-year sentence. “Blagojevich is the only one in modern history in prison for breaking the rules of political fundraising”.
But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has done our former governor a favor by forcing him to go gray, the natural color imputing a maturity his dye job never allowed.
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This is his first public appearance since he was sentenced to prison almost five years ago.
