A defiant Rod Blagojevich headed to a federal prison in Colorado on Thursday to begin a 14-year sentence on charges that included attempting to sell the Senate seat that once belonged to President Obama.

“I’m leaving with a heavy heart, a clear conscience and I have high, high hopes for the future,” he told reporters, well-wishers and others.

The Associated Press offered a glimpse of the former governor’s life in the years ahead. –ARK

AP via The Guardian:

Inside, Blagojevich’s life will be strictly regimented. The ex-governor — who was heard on the FBI wiretaps scoffing at the idea of earning a low six-figure salary — will work a menial prison job, possibly cleaning bathrooms or doing landscape work, starting at 12 cents an hour.

Guards take a half dozen head counts a day, including several overnight, and Blagojevich will be told what to do rather than give orders to sycophant aides, as he did while Illinois’ top executive.

“He’s going to be doing a lot of, ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir,'” said Jim Laski, a former Chicago city clerk sentenced to two years in prison for corruption in 2006.

Read more

 TRUTHDIG’S JOURNALISM REMAINS CLEAR

The storytellers of chaos tried to manipulate the political and media narrative in 2025, but independent journalism exposed what they tried to hide. When you read Truthdig, you see through the illusion.

Support Independent Journalism.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG