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Scamfluencers

ENCORE: Rod Blagojevich: All the Governor’s Men

6/8/202645 min

We’ll be back soon with all new episodes. In the meantime, enjoy this episode about Rod Blagojevich, the infamous governor of Illinois who used his office to line his pockets.

Rod Blagojevich is an ambitious son of immigrants who knows how to win over a crowd. After marrying the daughter of a powerful alderman, he rises through the ranks of Illinois politics. He gets elected governor in 2002, and immediately starts wheeling and dealing, leveraging his influence for his own personal gain. But when he gets wrapped up in a scheme to sell Barack Ob...

Clips

Rod’s Furious F-Bomb Rant
Sex, Drugs, Shakedowns
Politics Or Personal Profit?
“Time Of Your Life” Line
Could Rod Run For President?

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Scaachi Koul· Host0:00

    Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

  2. Speaker 20:08

    We'll be back in two weeks with a brand-new episode of Scamfluencers, but today, we're revisiting a story that just keeps getting more absurd, the saga of Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor who tried to sell a US Senate seat. When we first told this story, Rod had already had his sentence commuted by President Trump during his first term. Well, in February 2025, Trump went even further and gave Rod a full pardon, saying that what happened to him was a, quote, "terrible injustice." And what did Rod do with his fresh start? Well, he became a lobbyist.

  3. Scaachi Koul· Host0:41

    That makes sense for someone who tried selling a Senate seat. It's like, why not do something evil but legal, right?

  4. Speaker 20:49

    Well, within weeks of his pardon, Rod registered to lobby on behalf of the Republic of Srebrenica, a Serb majority territory in Bosnia. He's also lobbying the Trump administration to pardon another convicted politician, Anne Pramaggiore, the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison, who was found guilty last year of bribing the Illinois House Speaker.

  5. Scaachi Koul· Host1:09

    I guess it's one of those game recognize game situations, right?

  6. Speaker 21:13

    Yeah, it has to be. So to recap, the man who went to prison for trying to sell political favors got pardoned, and is now being paid a reported six figures to ask for more pardons. Rod even told the Washington Examiner that Trump said he'd back him if he ever ran for office again. So with this

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