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Supreme Court won't hear appeal by former Illinois governor Blagojevich

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich in his 2008 mugshot./Wikimedia Commons.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year sentence for political corruption.



It is the second time the court declined to grant cert to Blagojevich, report the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago-Sun Times.



In 2016, the court refused to hear an appeal by Blagojevich that maintained there was no clear line among the lower courts between legal and illegal trading of political favors.

The current cert petition had asked the court to decide whether the government must prove an “explicit promise or undertaking” when it prosecutes a public official for soliciting an illegal campaign contribution. A second issue raised in the petition was whether a federal court may decline to address an argument that a shorter sentence is needed to avoid sentence disparities.

Blagojevich’s best hope now is for President Donald Trump to issue a pardon or commutation. Blagojevich had appeared on Trump’s reality television program Celebrity Appearance.

Blagojevich’s release date is scheduled for May 2024.