Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich says he has lost a friend following the death of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Blagojevich and Jackson shared a decades-long relationship, highlighted by their joint efforts to secure the release of U.S. soldiers during the Kosovo War.
Blagojevich and Jackson’s History
Blagojevich and Jackson originally connected through Illinois Democratic circles and Jackson’s son, a Congressman. They are perhaps best known for their 1999 trip to Yugoslavia, where they successfully negotiated the release of three captured U.S. soldiers during the Kosovo War.
“I feel like I lost a friend…he will always have a special place in my heart,” Blagojevich said. “His legacy is there with Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass.”
Blagojevich recalled seeing Jackson last the summer before last, noting Jackson was courageously battling Parkinson’s disease. “He needed assistance from an aide to even get out of his chair. But it was amazing to see someone so strong and forceful deal with that kind of burden,” he said.
From Governor to Pardon
Blagojevich served as governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. In 2011, he was convicted in a federal corruption scandal and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.
President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020 and fully pardoned him last year. Blagojevich credits Jackson with playing a role in convincing Trump to commute his sentence.
“I called him literally the moment I was released from prison, where I’d spend 2,896 days – one month short of eight years,” he said. “It was ironic. In 1999 the two us went across the ocean and, he, with a little help from me, freed US soldiers.”
“Who would have thought that one day he would be doing the same thing, but playing a role in freeing me,” Blagojevich added.
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