NEW YORK – Donald Trump said he had "great respect" for Rod Blagojevich's tenacity during his run on the TV series "The Apprentice," although the former governor ended up with a 14-year prison sentence after Trump fired him on the show.
That could indicate that the now-President-elect Trump could be sensitive to Blagojevich's mercy pleadings to be released from prison after serving six years.
But for now, Blagojevich's plea is in the hands of President Barack Obama – a fellow Democrat that served in the U.S. Senate and was elected President when Blagojevich was Illinois' governor.
Although Blagojevich never saw a dime of the money he sought while attempting to trade funds for an appointment to fill Obama's empty U.S. Senate seat, arranging to sell the seat was enough to get him in trouble in 2008.
That's when an FBI recording caught Blagojevich boasting about how he could profit from an appointment to Obama's seat, saying, "I've got this thing and it's f—— golden. And I'm just not giving it up for f—— nothing."
So which, if either, president is more likely to commute Blagojevich's sentence?
