Ex-Gov. Blagojevich returns to Chicago, maintains innocence

By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is back home in Chicago after his sentence for political corruption was commuted by President Donald Trump.

Reporters and onlookers were on hand Wednesday as the now silver-haired Blagojevich arrived at O’Hare airport hours after he left the gates of the Federal Corrections Institution Englewood south of Denver.

Blagojevich served more than eight years of a 14-year sentence for crimes that included seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s former Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital.

The president said the punishment imposed on the Democrat and one-time contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” was excessive.