By Illinois Review
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich alleges in his new memoir that Gov. JB Pritzker personally called President Donald Trump twice in August 2019 and successfully blocked his anticipated release from federal prison – delaying his freedom by six months.
In Framed, F*cked, and Freed: A Governor’s Odyssey, scheduled for release Tuesday, November 10, Blagojevich recounts how Trump was preparing to commute his 14-year federal prison sentence in August 2019 when Pritzker allegedly intervened.
Pritzker “called the President twice and urged him not to release me,” Blagojevich writes, describing the alleged intervention as something that “felt like a betrayal.”
The timing is significant.
In August 2019, Trump came close to commuting Blagojevich’s sentence before abruptly putting the decision on hold. News reports indicated that the former governor had reached prison discharge processing at the federal correctional facility in Littleton, Colorado, before the anticipated release was halted.
Blagojevich’s memoir also recounts how Illinois Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Vargas was waiting outside the Colorado prison, prepared to bring the former governor home.
“An officer stopped by around eight thirty. ‘Your guy is here to pick you up,’ he said. ‘He asked to see you, but I told him he couldn’t wait here. We’ll call him when it’s time.’ The man outside was Mark Vargas,” Blagojevich writes.
But the anticipated release never happened.
Trump ultimately put the August 2019 commutation on hold, leaving Blagojevich behind bars for another six months.
According to Blagojevich, Pritzker’s personal intervention derailed the original commutation.
While Pritzker’s public opposition to his release was already well documented, the memoir alleges that the governor went further – personally calling Trump twice to stop it.
In August 2019, as Trump publicly considered granting clemency, Pritzker’s office made clear that the Democratic governor believed his predecessor belonged behind bars.
Trump ultimately commuted Blagojevich’s sentence on February 18, 2020, allowing the former governor to return home to his wife, Patti, and their two daughters after approximately eight years in federal prison.
Five years later, on February 10, 2025, Trump granted Blagojevich a full and unconditional presidential pardon.
“It was a terrible injustice…This shouldn’t have happened to him,” Trump said of Blagojevich’s prosecution and imprisonment.
The new memoir also revisits Blagojevich’s personal history with Pritzker, including a humorous encounter dating back to 1995.
At the time, Blagojevich was preparing to run for Congress and arranged lunch with Pritzker at a Chicago deli, hoping to secure a campaign contribution.
As Pritzker scanned the menu, Blagojevich recalls him announcing, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. I’m getting a pastrami sandwich.”
Blagojevich describes the moment with his trademark humor.
“There was something heartwarming about watching JB eat that pastrami sandwich. He ate with vigor and laser-like focus.”
The lighthearted recollection contrasts with Blagojevich’s later description of feeling betrayed by a fellow Democrat who, according to his account, personally intervened with a Republican president to keep him imprisoned.
Beyond the allegations involving Pritzker, the memoir chronicles Blagojevich’s dramatic political downfall, his years behind bars and his eventual return to freedom.
Published by Skyhorse Publishing, the book takes readers inside a federal prison, where the former governor recounts gang politics, prison hustles, dangerous inmates, unusual rules and unexpected friendships.
But some of the memoir’s most personal passages focus on his family – particularly the birthdays, holidays and milestones he missed while his daughters grew up without him.
His new book arrives more than six years after his release and offers his account of the political figures, personal relationships and events that shaped his imprisonment.
For Illinois readers, the memoir offers a new account of Pritzker’s involvement in the events surrounding Blagojevich’s anticipated release. While Pritzker’s public opposition was well known, Blagojevich now claims the governor went directly to Trump – twice – and successfully persuaded him to halt the commutation.
What was supposed to be an August 2019 homecoming instead became another six months in federal prison. Blagojevich would not walk free until February 18, 2020.
Framed, F*cked, and Freed: A Governor’s Odyssey will be released nationwide on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.
