Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich returned home to Chicago on Wednesday after President Donald Trump commuted his 14-year prison sentenced a day before.
"President Trump is the one who did this, and I'm ... profoundly grateful," Blagojevich told reporters at Denver International Airport before boarding a flight to Chicago after being released earlier that day. "He's got obviously a big fan in me," said Blagojevich, 63. "And if you’re asking me what my party affiliation is, I’m a Trump-ocrat."
"He didn't have to do this. He’s a Republican president; I was a Democratic governor," Blagojevich added. "My fellow Democrats have not been very kind to him. ... In fact, they’ve been very unkind to him."
The former governor also told reporters he is innocent as he walked through the airport. "I didn’t do the things they said I did and they lied on me."
After arriving home in Chicago on Wednesday, Blagojevich lavished praise on Trump.
For several years, Blagojevich and his wife pushed for Trump to commute his sentence. He was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat and trying to extort a children's hospital in 2011.
But Trump, in remarks to reporters on Tuesday, said he felt Blagojevich's sentence was unfair.
“That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others,” Trump said. In previous years, the president said he was considering taking action on his case.
Several local Illinois officials, including the governor and some Republicans, said it was a mistake to commute Blagojevich's sentence.
“That if I were to give in to the pressure and give in to the shakedown that was done to me, that I would be violating my oath of office to fight for the Constitution and fight for the rule of law and keep my promises to [the public],” he said. “ ’Cause I didn’t do the things they said I did. And they lied on me.”