More than six years after Gov. Rod Blagojevich walked into a federal prison, he may be on the verge of talking his way out.

For weeks, Blagojevich and his team have orchestrated a calculated publicity campaign labeling his prosecution on sweeping corruption charges unjust and politically motivated. The show has been targeted to an audience of one: President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Trump indicated for the first time he’s been listening. He told reporters aboard Air Force One he is considering commuting Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence, which he described as an overly harsh penalty for what essentially amounted to a “foolish statement.”

In his comments, which were part of a discussion of his plan to pardon conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, Trump mentioned only one of the several corrupt acts for which Blagojevich was convicted — bartering to get something for himself in return for attempting to “sell” the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after his election as president. He also misstated the length of Blagojevich’s sentence.

“I’ll tell you another one … there’s another one that I’m thinking about. Rod Blagojevich,” Trump said, according to a pool report. “Eighteen (sic) years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other politician, you know that many other politicians say.”

“And if you look at what he said, he said something to the effect like, ‘What do I get?’ … Stupid thing to say. But he’s sort of saying … he’s gonna make a U.S. senator, which is a very big deal,” Trump said. “If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement. There was a lot of bravado. … Plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse. He shouldn’t have been put in jail.”

Trump also referred to Blagojevich’s stint on his reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” but downplayed any relationship between them, saying, “I don’t know him other than that he was on (the show) for a short period of time.”

The president’s comments were blasted Thursday by Robert Grant, the former head of the FBI in Chicago who helped lead the sprawling Operation Board Games investigation that resulted in dozens of convictions and ultimately led to Blagojevich’s downfall.

Grant, who retired from the FBI in 2012, told the Chicago Tribune that any executive clemency would be “nothing but a mean-spirited slap” at Trump’s perceived political enemies, including special counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.

”It’s clear (Trump) has never seen any of the evidence,” Grant said in a telephone interview. “He took his talking points from (wife) Patti Blagojevich. It’s pure fantasy. This was flat-out, old-fashioned corruption, pure and simple.”

Blagojevich, 61, is not due for release from the minimum-security facility outside Denver until May 2024. While the former governor’s lawyers have not formally asked the president for a pardon or commutation, the president has the power to order Blagojevich freed at any point.

Blagojevich’s lead attorney, Leonard Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that he was “grateful that President Trump understands the unfairness” of the situation.

“He has the power to correct this injustice,” Goodman said.

Trump’s bombshell comments came two days after The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by Blagojevich decrying his conviction as a politically motivated attack on everyday campaign fundraising — arguments that have been roundly rejected by a federal appeals court and ignored by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The piece, published on Memorial Day under the headline “I’m in Prison for Practicing Politics,” began by saying that the “rule of law is under assault in America.”

“It is being perverted and abused by the people sworn to enforce and uphold it,” Blagojevich wrote. “Some in the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government. … When they can’t prove a crime, they create one.”

It was the latest in a media blitz that began in earnest after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected what was his last legal option to overturn his case through the courts.

Patti Blagojevich has gone on national cable news — including Trump’s favorite, Fox News Channel — in not-so-veiled attempts to link her husband’s prosecution to former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a close friend of fired FBI chief James Comey.

Fitzgerald also prosecuted former vice presidential adviser Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom Trump pardoned in April.

Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, had no comment Thursday.

But Randall Samborn, who served as Fitzgerald’s spokesman throughout the Blagojevich case, said the former governor’s “PR campaign to revise history” seems to have resonated with the president — but it doesn’t change the facts of his case or his guilt.

Samborn, who left the U.S. attorney’s office in 2015, said he was concerned that Blagojevich and his supporters have seemingly gained traction in their campaign to “portray (Blagojevich) as the victim.”

“When he was sentenced, (Blagojevich) said he had nobody to blame but himself,” Samborn said. “You can try to revise history all you want, but it doesn’t change the facts.”

While Trump spoke only of statements made by Blagojevich on undercover wiretaps, much of the evidence presented at trial came from witnesses who said Blagojevich was shaking them down for campaign cash in exchange for official acts, Samborn said.

The victims included the then-CEO of Children’s Memorial Hospital who said he was pressured to contribute tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for state funding.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Patti Blagojevich said she and the couple’s two daughters, Amy and Annie, were “very encouraged” by the president’s remarks to reporters on Air Force One.

“He’s given us something that has been hard to come by recently … hope,” she said. “From the beginning, we’ve eagerly awaited the day when Rod could come back home where he belongs, and we continue to pray our family will be made whole again soon.”