Scott Fitzgerald says he is not troubled by Trump commuting Blagojevich's sentence

MADISON - The leader of the Wisconsin Senate who is running for a seat in Congress said Thursday he didn't take issue with President Donald Trump granting clemency to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said Trump's reduction of Blagojevich's sentence for corruption at first "didn't make much sense to me" but added he didn't believe Trump was mishandling his clemency powers. 

"It’s pretty clear that the president has these powers and I trust that the president is using them in a way that he sees fit," Fitzgerald told reporters. "So I don’t have a problem with it."

Trump on Tuesday commuted Blagojevich's 14-year sentence for attempting to get campaign cash and other political favors in exchange for choosing who would replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate after Obama won the presidency. Blagojevich entered federal prison in 2012. 

The grant of clemency came the same day Trump pardoned the "junk bond king" Michael Milken and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Milken was convicted of securities fraud and Kerik of tax fraud and other crimes. 

Fitzgerald said he hadn't heard much outcry from voters in his district about what Trump did for Blagojevic. 

"It didn’t make much sense to me," Fitzgerald said. "I heard the president’s explanation and then it kind of made more sense. It’s more about the length of sentencing and who’s involved in that sentence, which kind of dovetailed from the whole discussion on others that have had greater sentences assigned after they’re convicted."

Critics have argued the president has inappropriately used his clemency powers because he doesn't go through the Department of Justice's normal process and puts much of his attention on well-connected celebrities. Fitzgerald said he didn't have a concern about how Trump made those decisions. 

Fitzgerald is running for the heavily Republican seat that longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is giving up.

Tom Palzewicz, the Democrat running for the district, said Blagojevich should have served his entire sentence. 

"It just seems interesting that in a time period when there is a lot of discussion about corruption that he's increasingly what I would call fanning the flames on this issue," Palzewicz said of Trump. 

"It is par for the course for who he has been since he has been elected," he said. "For us to expect anything else I think is unwise and it's just not going to happen. Is it right? No. Is it in line with what he's been doing consistently all along? Yes."

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.