- Go, Rod, go- - (Narrator) Coming up- - Go, Rod, go!

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

(audience cheering) You're just saying, "Go, Rod, go," 'cause you can't say Blagojevich.

(audience cheering) - [Narrator] To most, he's known simply as Blago.

Rod Blagojevich was a rising political star who seemed destined for greatness.

- [Commuter] You're here to stay, right?

- I'm here to stay.

I'm here to fight for you.

- Charisma is his superpower.

- He has really, really innate ability to connect with people.

- I want the people of Illinois to know you ain't seen nothin' yet.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Narrator] But behind the charm and promises of reform was a shocking new version of Chicago style corruption, and it was all caught on tape.

- [Rod] I've got this thing, and it's (beep) golden, and I'm just not giving it up for (beep) nothing.

- [Narrator] He became the center of a scandal that captivated the nation.

- I've been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest time- - Well, you're on in the worst way, believe me.

- I sure am.

(Rod and David laughing) - [Narrator] And brought the sting of shame to his hometown.

- It put such a bad taste in people's mouths about the politics of Chicago, and I think that that is probably one of the things that hurts the most.

- Rod, Rod!

- Rod, how you feeling?

- I regret getting into politics.

(video whirring) Looking back, I should've just been a lawyer.

(lively bluesy music) - [Narrator] Rod Blagojevich, next on "Chicago Stories."

(upbeat music) (subway rattling) (upbeat music) (gentle foreboding music) (Narrator) 6 a.m.

on a Tuesday, December 9th, 2008.

FBI agents pulled up to a tidy, yellow brick home on the North Side of Chicago, arrest warrant in hand.

Their target?

The governor of Illinois.

- They arrest a sitting governor at 6:00 in the morning?

That's unheard of.

That's never happened before.

They had SWAT teams around my house.

They rained down Armageddon on me.

- [Narrator] Rod Blagojevich and his wife Patti were stunned.

As their two young daughters slept upstairs, agents escorted the governor in his running clothes out the back door.

- So finally when you get in the back seat and your hands are cuffed behind you, you ask the head of the FBI, "Why are you doing this?

And the guy says, "We're charging you with an attempt "to sell the Senate seat."

I said, "What?"

And my thought immediately was, "This is so ridiculous "that no one's gonna take this seriously."

- Governor Blagojevich has been arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree.

- I think there was a sense of absolute disbelief.

Rod Blagojevich, the handsome, charismatic governor who promised to clean up Illinois, ends up arrested for his own brand of corruption.

- [Narrator] The accusations were explosive.

Six weeks of secret FBI recordings captured evidence of shakedowns, pay-to-play politics, and worse.

- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich faces federal charges that he put President-elect Obama's Senate seat up for sale.

- We were gobsmacked.

It was unbelievable.

Here, Illinois is proud of this moment that they have their son, Barack Obama, going to the White House, and at the same time, you know, you have the governor of Illinois trying to make a buck off of this, or trying to save his political career.

- The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.

- I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, that I intend to stay on the job, and I will fight this thing every step of the way.

I have done nothing wrong.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich was ultimately convicted on 18 counts of corruption, and sentenced to 14 years, the longest ever for a governor.

Today, he may be older and that famous head of hair grayer, but little else has changed.

After serving nearly eight years in federal prison, Blagojevich remains as defiant and unapologetic as ever.

- Do I have any regrets about, you know, how I handled it, things when the storm came, and calamity came on me like a whirlwind?

No, I did the only thing that an honest person can do, and that is fight back, not give in, take the blows, and suffer, I like to think, nobly, for what you know is right.

(light music) - [Narrator] To understand just who Rod Blagojevich is and where that fight came from, we need to go back to the beginning to an apartment on the Near Northwest Side of Chicago.

Rod Blagojevich was born in 1956, the second son of Serbian immigrant Rade Blagojevich and his American born Serbian wife, Millie.

(light music) - Both my mother and father were loving parents, working people both.

My dad, Finkl Steel Company was among the places that he worked, and my mom worked for the Chicago Transit Authority passing, taking fares and passing out transfers at the subway stations.

My brother and I got jobs as little boys, shoeshine boys.

So I went to public school.

I wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in school.

- [Narrator] Rod's older brother Robert was a natural athlete and superstar student.

- He was just always in that sense a little bit in the shadow of his brother's excellence.

Rod sort of describes himself as the screw up.

You know, he had a harder time in school.

- [Narrator] But Rod had charm, and lots of it.

- He was flashy and fun, and he loved Elvis Presley, and he did Elvis impressions.

- Elvis came from nothing.

Blago related to that coming from hardscrabble Serbian roots, climbed up on his charm and charisma and hair, and maybe Rod thought he was very much like Elvis.

I think it was just part of his charm.

- [Narrator] Rod played basketball in high school before trying his hand at Golden Gloves boxing, where he lost a few bouts and then quit, but not before he asked a photographer to snap his photo in the ring.

(flash bulb popping) - It was the first time I ever got my name in the "Chicago Tribune."

I think the last time they ever wrote anything nice about me was in the Golden Gloves.

(light music) - [Narrator] After working to help put himself through college while living at home, Rod headed to Malibu, California, where he narrowly graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University.

(light music) - As a little boy, I used to read the "World Book Encyclopedia."

I would read the history parts, but I would read about these presidents, and almost all of 'em were lawyers.

I didn't wanna work at a factory.

I didn't wanna do the hard work my father did.

I think I'll be a lawyer.

- Rod was a lousy student, barely got through law school, acknowledges that fact, and yet, I watched him play word games and memory games, and he was unbelievable.

It's a brilliance in one way, and kind of an ignorance in another way.

- [Narrator] Once back in Chicago, he took a low-level job in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office working traffic court.

But he wanted more.

(light music) - Rod really didn't have any particular plans one way, or the other.

He just wanted to be somebody.

He wanted to be a celebrity, and politics was his way to do it, and he did.

(pensive music) - [Narrator] The Chicago Blagojevich grew up in was Mayor Richard J. Daley's city, The Boss, who ran it with his famed political machine, where patronage ruled, and the city's aldermen were kings of their fiefdoms, the 50 Chicago wards.

(graphics whirring) (pensive music) - We're talking about scratch my back and I'll scratch your back.

We're talking about, you know, knowing that if you have a multimillion dollar project coming in that you better cut that alderman in in some way.

But that's how things were done in Chicago.

You had to bend the knee to power to get things done.

- [Narrator] You also had to know someone, and Blagojevich didn't.

(camera shutter clicking) He was looking for a way in when he showed up at a fundraiser for Alderman Dick Mell, one of the city's most powerful ward bosses, whose daughter Patti was also at the event.

- Dick Mell was a machine alderman.

That meant clout, and connections, and contracts were everything.

Mell, of course, famously stood up in the City Council chamber on his desk at 4:00 in the morning demanding a vote after Harold Washington's death.

- I saw him on television, as I think most of Chicago did.

Little do I know that four months later that I'd meet his daughter, fall in love with her, and he'd become my father-in-law.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Within a few months, 23-year-old Patti Mell and 31-year-old Rod Blagojevich had fallen for each other.

- We had driven up to Wonder Lake for a 4th of July celebration, family celebration.

It was late in the evening, and Rod's radio in his car was broken, and on the way home, he sang Elvis to me all the way home to keep me entertained, and that's when I kind of knew that he was different and special.

- [Narrator] The couple was married two years later.

- This really was, you know, Rod Blagojevich's direct tie to the machine.

He was now family.

There's no question that Dick Mell was Rod Blagojevich's golden ticket to politics.

- [Narrator] Mel had an eye for talent, and decided his ambitious son-in-law might make a great candidate for state rep.

- My father-in-law said, "Would you be interested in running?"

And I was, 'cause of all the history books I read, and all the rest.

This could be my chance to actually get in.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich entered the Democratic Primary race for Illinois' 33rd District as the underdog.

But he had two things going for him, Mell's backing, which meant money and an army of political soldiers, and his innate skill as a campaigner.

(tense music) - He was likable, he was relatable, and he was handsome and young and energetic, and all those things worked to his benefit.

- I ran 14 hours a day knocking on every single door I could find, going to the subway stations, the train stations, going to the bus stops, shaking a thousand hands a day, and just all over the place, and doing it full-time, and then, we won by a lot.

(tense music) (graphics whooshing) - [Narrator] In a surprise upset, Blagojevich won 65% of the vote in the primary, and then sailed to victory.

(dramatic music) - So now people know if you go to Mell, yeah, his, the son-in-law that he sponsored is now a state legislator.

What do we need?

Do we need something passed?

Do we need somebody in the legislature to lean on somebody else in a certain committee?

Those are the kinds of things that start happening and how you branch out your power.

(light music) - [Narrator] Three years later, Blagojevich and Mell moved on to an even bigger stage, the race for US Congress.

(light music) - Mell just wanted more influence.

He had a tremendous amount of clout in the city of Chicago.

He just wanted that expanded to the state of Illinois.

He wanted more.

(pen scratching) - [Narrator] Blagojevich won, and was sworn in as congressman for the Fifth District of Illinois in 1997.

- He was a total backbencher in Congress.

He really didn't have any meaningful accomplishments to speak of, but he had incredible political skill, and intuition, and drive, and talent, and that was enough.

(light music) - [Narrator] Blagojevich accomplished little in Washington.

That is, until his second term, when he traveled with Jesse Jackson to war-torn Belgrade, Serbia- on a mission to free three US soldiers being held captive by strongman and dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

(Rod speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] Blagojevich served as a translator, helping the delegation negotiate for the soldiers' release.

(person speaking in foreign language) - We are going out for an early morning jog in Belgrade, and we're counting on the fact that right about this time the bombing intensity kind of slows up a little.

- [Narrator] Two days later, Milosevic relented, and as the world watched, the soldiers were freed.

(group applauding) - He's teaming up with Jesse Jackson, you know, who is revered, you know, in the Black community, and in Chicago in particular, and this was a real lift.

I think he saw, "Hey, I did this myself.

"I didn't need my father-in-law.

"I didn't need anyone.

"I used my own instincts, my own charisma, my own language."

He saw himself on a trajectory to the presidency at some point.

(lively music) - [Narrator] Blagojevich, by many accounts, was bored in Congress, and already calculating his next move.

- All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he decides to run for governor of Illinois, and he gets a lot of breaks.

- [Narrator] To Blagojevich, it was the perfect time to throw his hat in the race.

The incumbent, George Ryan, was embroiled in a criminal investigation that would ultimately send him to jail.

- I believe this decision- - [Narrator] He would be a long shot.

Most voters outside Chicago had never heard of Rod Blagojevich.

(tense music) - I had to win downstate, where nobody knew me, and the name was crazy, and all the experts said I had no chance.

- [Narrator] Rod embraced his underdog status, highlighting his working class roots, and promising to take on the corruption of Illinois politics.

- I'm Rod Blagojevich.

My name is Eastern European.

My story is American.

- The major ad he did, he tells this incredible coming of age American story.

- And I went from last to first on that ad.

It was pretty much an ad that says, "Look, man, I lived your life, I understand you.

"I understand what your concerns are, "what your needs are, what your burdens are."

- [Narrator] Though he initially had been dismissed as a nobody, Blagojevich quickly gained momentum.

- [Andy] The first campaign was brilliant.

- I'm here to fight for you, man.

- Right.

- He followed a corrupt governor with pledges of reform and cleaning up the mess.

(light music) - [Narrator] But behind the scenes, tensions were mounting.

Blagojevich was desperate to prove himself and to step out of the shadow of his powerful father-in-law, who was helping to finance the campaign.

- Our relationship is almost right out of a Shakespeare story, you know?

It was like the more success I had and he had, the more difficulties we had.

The expectations were so high that he, that I felt like I couldn't fulfill it.

- So Mell in many ways did help make Rod.

At the same time, Mell took a lot more credit for making Rod than he deserved.

Rod was a genuinely incredibly, wildly talented, far more talented than Mell, politician and public figure.

- [Narrator] In order to call his own shots, Blagojevich needed his own funds.

He brought in two men who would become his closest unofficial advisors.

Tony Rezko, an entrepreneur and political insider, who was also a top fundraiser for Barack Obama, and Chris Kelly, a roofing company owner with a knack for bringing in huge campaign donations.

In just four months, these power brokers pulled in $23.5 million, shattering previous fundraising efforts.

- I don't particularly think he was prepared to be governor, but he stayed on message, and he had the connections, and the apparatus, and the organization, and he had the money.

And so, that allowed him to rise very quickly.

- [Narrator] In March of 2002, Blagojevich eked out a primary win to become the Democratic candidate for governor, and the Elvis-loving upstart was determined to keep rising.

- I said it before, and I'm gonna say it again.

It's been 30 years of "Heartbreak Hotel" for the Democratic Party, but when we win in November, the Republicans are gonna be "All Shook Up."

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Narrator] Against all odds, Blagojevich won, marking the first time a Democrat was in the governor's office in nearly 30 years.

(audience applauding) - His political instincts were incredible, his charisma was incredible, and keep in mind, this is a first-generation American, son of a steel worker, you know, not someone who grew up with a lot of advantages, who became the governor of the fifth biggest state in the country.

So that doesn't happen out of nothing, right?

It takes talent and hard work.

- Raise your right hand.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich was sworn in with his pregnant wife Patti and young daughter by his side.

- Of my ability.

- Congratulations, Governor.

May God bless your- - Thank you.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) - For the first time in my life when I was elected governor, I actually had power.

I see a state where ethics laws are respected, where doing good is once again honored.

I was the youngest in the family, so I never sat at the head of the table at anything.

I don't carve the turkey to this day.

Patti's father does that.

But now I'm the governor, and I sit at the head of the table, and there's like $53 billion that I have a lot of influence on to decide where it goes and where it comes from.

(tense music) If you look at the results of my time as governor, I truly believe I was, I'm gonna say this, I really believe it.

I believe I was the best governor in modern Illinois history by far.

- [Narrator] There was a time during his first term when many Illinois residents would have agreed with him.

(group applauding) - Most of his issues were people-oriented, and that's why he became so popular as a governor, especially in the Black community.

- He could relate to minorities, he could relate to older folks, he could relate to younger folks.

Women loved him.

- [Narrator] Although the governor made few friends in Springfield, he was able to make good on many of his campaign promises, passing key legislation, including health insurance for children, free bus rides for seniors, and access to reproductive healthcare.

- He was very, I think, progressive for his time, but also someone who spoke to the community, and understood the community in a way that not everyone had before him.

- [Narrator] From the outside, Blagojevich appeared to be working hard for the people of Illinois, but his former Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk says that behind the scenes, Blagojevich had little interest in actually governing.

- He was home a lot.

He would run three, four, five times a week six, seven miles.

He loved to read.

It was interesting, he would never read anything about state government.

So if you gave him like the budget briefing book, he wouldn't touch it, but a 1,000-page biography of Napoleon, he would devour that, and he loved to just be on the phone all day, kind of talking political gossip.

- [Narrator] The day-to-day running of the state fell to 29-year-old Tusk by default.

- I didn't know what I wasn't supposed to be able to do.

So we took on a lot of really big fights that probably shouldn't have been winnable, like universal healthcare for kids, or universal preschool for kids, or knocking down every toll booth and doing open road tolling and being the first in the country to do that.

And look, to Rod's credit, while he didn't provide much support in terms of achieving these things, he also didn't stand in the way of them, either.

(light music) - [Narrator] Tusk says the governor spent an inordinate amount of time on his most distinguishing feature, his hair.

- We called his hairbrush the football, you know, like the nuclear football that was, you know, the most important sort of case in the world that all the president's codes to the nuclear arsenal.

On the days where he had his hair being dyed, it was a 24-hour nothing else could go on the schedule.

(light music) - You can be a workhorse, or a show horse, and I think he wanted to be the show horse and not necessarily the workhorse.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich's top priority was fundraising, bringing in as much money as possible to support his own political ambition.

- Rod wanted to be president.

In fact, I traveled with him on a trip to Washington, D.C.

while he was governor, where he met with James Carville, who'd been a leading advisor to Bill Clinton, and he met with Carville to talk about how you basically jumpstart a presidential campaign.

- [Narrator] Tusk says he was kept in the dark on Blagojevich's fundraising apparatus.

But the deputy governor got a peek behind the curtain when then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel called, wanting to know why Blagojevich was holding up $2 million in funding for a school in his district.

- I said, "Rod, you know, I don't even know what this is, "but Rahm called me.

"I assume it's just sort of a little internal screw up.

"I'll take care of it, and just get him out of our hair."

"No, no, no, can't happen.

"Ari owes me a fundraiser."

- [Narrator] Ari was Ari Emanuel, Rahm's brother, and one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.

- And Rod did not want the grant for the school in Rahm's district to be given out until the fundraiser was held, and I said to Rod, "You can't link these two things.

"One's government, one's politics.

"You know, it's not legal to put these two things together."

- [Narrator] Putting these two things together would amount to extortion.

Tusk alerted Blagojevich's general counsel.

The plan was quickly shut down, and the funds were approved, but it was a red flag and a harbinger of things to come.

(light music) 30 miles west of Chicago in the town of Naperville, Illinois, Pam Davis was the CEO of Edward Hospital, overseeing the development of a new full service medical facility.

With $200 million in funding secured and blueprints for construction ready, Davis needed routine approval from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board before she could break ground.

- I'd been presenting before the board actually for 20, 25 years.

We were expecting a normal presentation and answering questions.

That did not happen.

- [Narrator] Davis' project was denied with no explanation.

Later, in a private meeting, a board member told Davis the project would only be approved if she used his preferred contractor.

- He said, "Well, you know, we have a way "of controlling how the votes go."

I could tell for sure that some fix was in here.

Where there are big contracts and large sums of money, corruption has a way of finding it.

I ended that meeting, and then decided that I was gonna contact the FBI.

(phone button beeping) (phone ringing) - [Narrator] The FBI asked Pam Davis to go undercover to collect evidence in a secret investigation they called Operation: Board Games.

- I was instructed that I could not tell anyone, anyone about this, not my family, not the executive team.

- [Narrator] When Davis arrived at her next meeting with two members of the Health Facilities Board, she had an FBI recording device hidden in her bra.

(tense music) - I was afraid it might fall out, and then once you're in the meeting, if somebody nods and it's an important thing you're talking about, you're telling me that you can control four votes out of this board and that there'd be a head nod, that would not be, you know, enough.

You have to figure out how to actually get a verbal response.

- [Narrator] For eight months, Davis wore the wire, recording meetings with several shady board members, all of whom were appointed to their seats by Governor Rod Blagojevich.

- I kept thinking, "Why am I doing so many meetings, "so many phone calls?

"What is going on?"

And it suddenly occurred to me they had been tapping not just me, but up the chain, that this was going to go up to the governor, because the governor appoints the individuals to this board.

(people chattering) - [Narrator] One of those individuals was lawyer and businessman Stuart Levine, who emerged in Davis' recordings as the ringleader of a massive corruption scheme involving several state boards.

He later pled guilty to using his influence to squeeze nearly $20 million in kickbacks over eight years.

The FBI arrested Levine in 2005, and he agreed to cooperate, pointing the finger at more than a dozen people with connections to the Blagojevich administration.

- So Stuart Levine was really the key to toppling a lot of the power structures behind the scenes.

He had his fingers in lots of dirty deals, so all these people trusted him.

- [Narrator] Levine's most damning accusation was that Blagojevich's top fundraisers, Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly, had pulled in over $5 million from 200 donors.

In exchange, many received appointments to government jobs, powerful board seats, or lucrative state contracts, and Blagojevich knew all about it.

- So to get on a board in Illinois, you had to make the contribution, $25,000 in the cases that we proved, and then you had to do the governor's bidding.

The people on that board were expected to follow the governor's guidance as to who to approve and who not to approve.

It's all about money.

It had nothing to do with serving the public.

It was all about enriching themselves, all of them.

(gentle foreboding music) (people chattering) - [Narrator] But investigators needed more than the word of an admitted fraudster to prove their case, and Blagojevich denied any wrongdoing.

- Your question is did I, or would I ever direct anybody who raises money for my campaign to do those sorts of things?

The answer is absolutely not.

Again, we don't operate that way.

We do things honestly, and we play by the rules.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich was safe, for the time being.

But things were about to get much, much worse as his relationship with his father-in-law reached a new low.

- It was very much this power struggle of, you know, a man who saw himself as, "I am governor now.

"I have power over you.

"I have all kinds of my own alliances now.

"I don't really need you," and then you have Dick Mell very furious about this.

(tense music) - [Narrator] The final straw came when Blagojevich closed a landfill that Mell's family members had a financial stake in, citing environmental violations.

Mell was enraged, and wanted revenge.

He called reporters from his vacation home in Florida and started spilling family secrets.

- Dick Mell is going off, saying that his son-in-law is ungrateful, but also saying that he's siding up to these very unsavory figures, and he names Chris Kelly and Tony Rezko, and he's accusing them on the record of taking $25,000 campaign contributions in exchange for committee appointments.

- Last week, Mell accused Rod Blagojevich's top fundraiser of trading state jobs for campaign contributions.

(tense music) - And he went out of his way to call a press conference, and make these outlandish accusations, which he knew were lies, but he also knew it was gonna open up the Pandora's box, and start the FBI looking into my business and targeting me.

He's clever that way.

- Without further ado, our governor, Rod Blagojevich.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Narrator] 10 months later, amidst swirling rumors of corruption, Blagojevich was reelected for a second term.

Agents were circling, and cracks in the governor's inner circle were beginning to appear.

Over the next few years, the feds rolled out indictments on 16 individuals, including Blagojevich's right-hand men Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly.

(tense music) In a blow to the feds, both men refused to cooperate.

Kelly ultimately made a tragic choice, taking his own life in a drug overdose.

- We're at a point where it really seems like we're getting closer and closer to the governor, and the governor, again, up and down denying any, any involvement.

"Yes, these were people that worked with me, "but I had nothing to do with it."

- [Narrator] Investigators needed someone with inside information on Blagojevich who they could break.

That someone was John Wyma, the governor's former chief of staff, and one of his closest allies.

- The key to Rod's conviction was a guy by the name of John Wyma who had been a very close friend.

They were jogging partners.

Well, Wyma was part of the whole operation.

- [Narrator] In October, 2008, the FBI built a case and charged Wyma with corruption.

- And when the feds squeezed him, he got himself a really good attorney, a former US attorney, and they worked out an immunity deal, and Wyma spilled the beans on what was going on.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Facing jail time, Wyma decided to save his own skin and flip on his friend.

According to Wyma, Blagojevich told him to pressure the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital for a $50,000 contribution in exchange for signing an $8 million bill that would benefit the hospital.

And he told the FBI about another extortion attempt scheduled to take place at the Blagojevich campaign office in a few days.

(people chattering) (tense music) That intel triggered a federal search warrant.

With just hours to spare, the FBI's Quantico tech team slipped in at midnight to bug the office.

(tense music) - We had to get in, we had to install the microphones, we had to reestablish the alarms, we had to reestablish the cameras, and we had to get out without being detected.

And by 4:00 in the morning, it was successfully installed, as I like to say, with baling wire, twine, and duct tape, because it was such a rush job.

(tense music) - [Narrator] At 10:00 a.m.

the meeting got underway.

Unbeknownst to its participants, the bugs picked up their every word.

(people chattering) (suspenseful music) - Somebody got brought in, they were shaken down for a contribution.

So this is a golden opportunity.

- [Narrator] Now, investigators had enough to branch out their operation, secretly wiretapping eight phone lines, including Blagojevich's home and cell, and those of his closest confidants.

- [Rod] Hey, Lon.

- [Lon] How are you?

- [Rod] Good, just got back from a haircut.

- [Lon] Wow, you sound like you just got back from a run.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Starting on October 29th, 2008, for 40 days, FBI agents listened in on a total of 5,000 calls.

- [Rod] Hey, beautiful wife.

- [Patti] Hey.

- [Rod] How's my beautiful wife?

- [Patti] I'm doing fine.

- [Narrator] What they heard as they sifted through the personal chatter was a governor laser-focused on stockpiling cash.

(tense music) (people chattering) - He's trying to raise money.

He's desperate to raise money, because in politics, money is power, and he's losing that.

He's starting to have a more and more difficult time raising money.

(tense music) - [Narrator] In less than three months, a new state ethics law was set to take effect that would limit his ability to solicit donations from anyone with a large state contract, the bread and butter of his fundraising operation.

- [Lon] I'm telling you, he's gonna be good for it.

I got in his face.

- [Rod] Okay, good.

- [Narrator] Investigators also began to pick up increasingly outrageous profanity-laced rants.

- [Patti] What kind of (beep) is that?

- [Rod] You guys are telling me- - (beep) that!

- It's no good.

Yeah, I just gotta suck it up?

- [Patti] (beep) that.

- [Rod] This mother (beep).

- [Narrator] Like after the "Chicago Tribune" reported the governor's approval rating had plummeted.

- [Rod] I gave your grandmother a free (beep) ride on a bus, and what do I get for that?

Only 13% of y'all out there think I'm doing a good job.

So (beep) all of you!

(tense music) - [Narrator] Investigators continued to collect evidence of suspected corruption.

But there was something even bigger on the horizon.

(tense dramatic music) - And CNN can now project that Barack Obama, 47 years old, will become the president-elect of the United States.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Narrator] Barack Obama, another promising young Illinoisan with an unusual name, had made it to the pinnacle of American political power, just as Rod Blagojevich was beginning his hard descent.

- And Rod Blagojevich had thought, "That was supposed to be me."

And so, he's watching Barack Obama rise and rise and rise, and he is getting increasingly desperate.

- [Narrator] For Blagojevich, there was one upside, the power to select a replacement for Obama's vacant Senate seat, and Blagojevich saw it as the answer to all his problems.

- The governor makes the appointment of a replacement to the Senate, does not require legislative approval.

It is a tremendous amount of power, and Rod viewed that as a tremendous opportunity to make money and exert influence.

- Rod was approached by a representative of Barack Obama, who made it clear that he would like his successor to be Valerie Jarrett.

He discussed with his aides, "Well, can I make a deal with him?

"I'd like to be in his cabinet.

"I'd like to be Health and Human Services Secretary, "and how can I make that deal?

"Is that lawful?"

- [Narrator] Blagojevich's defense attorney says that his client was only considering his options.

For days, as the feds listened in, the governor tossed around possible positions he could gain from Obama if he appointed Jarrett, from private sector roles to foreign ambassadorships.

- [Rod] How about India?

India is vital.

- [John] Yeah, India is vital.

I'd say India- - [Rod] Is that realistic, or would he reject that?

- [John] No, that's realistic- - Is it?

- I think so.

- [Rod] No (beep).

Germany, England, France, Canada?

UN Ambassador, I'd take that.

- I don't know- - You Russian mother (beep).

Can you see me?

(Rod and John laughing) - [Narrator] But when the governor learned that President-elect Obama was not interested in giving him anything in exchange for Jarrett's appointment, Blagojevich was not happy.

- [Rod] Well, you guys are telling me I just gotta suck it up for two years and do nothing, give this mother (beep) his senator.

(beep) him.

For nothing?

(beep) him!

- [Narrator] Blagojevich had dozens of conversations about the Senate seat.

- [Rod] I told my nephew, Alex, he just turned 26 today.

I said, "Alex, it's too bad you're not four years older, "'cause I could've given you "a US Senate seat for your birthday."

- [Narrator] From appointing Oprah Winfrey- - [Rod] She's the king maker.

She made Obama.

- [Narrator] To appointing himself- - [Rod] And if I can't get the right deal, John, then I'll take it myself.

That's kind of where I'm at.

- [Narrator] When Blagojevich's advisors later counseled him against taking the seat, the governor became infuriated.

- [Rod] Look, I gotta tell you, I don't wanna be governor for the next two years.

I wanna get going, but it's like just screwing my family, and time is passing me by, and I'm stuck.

It's no good.

The whole world's passing me by, and I'm stuck in this (beep) job as governor now.

Everybody's passing me by, and I'm stuck.

- [Advisor] Who's passing you by?

- [Rod] Everybody, everybody.

I mean, we're struggling financially, and- - [Patti] And Amy's going to college in six years.

- [Rod] Amy's going to college in six years, and we can't afford it.

I can't afford college for my daughter.

(tense music) - [Narrator] In the FBI's listening room, agents were capturing it all.

They were in disbelief when they heard Blagojevich utter the most infamous quote of all.

- [Rod] I've got this thing, and it's (beep) golden, and I'm just not giving it up for (beep) nothing.

- [Narrator] When then-FBI Director Robert Mueller was in town on another matter, Robert Grant played him the tape.

- I played him a section of the wiretap, and it was, "This frickin' thing is golden."

He's heard corruption recordings before, but his response was shaking his head, "Only in Chicago.

"Only in Chicago."

(tense music) - [Narrator] Then 37 days into the wiretaps, the "Chicago Tribune" broke the story that John Wyma was cooperating with the FBI and that Blagojevich had been secretly recorded.

The feds had to act quickly.

- We had a meeting in my office.

My only question was, "If we ended today, "do you think you have enough to get a conviction?"

And they were confident they were.

Right then, we made the decision to arrest the governor.

(keyboard keys clacking) (tense music) - [Narrator] While the FBI strategized about his takedown, the governor appeared carefree.

- I don't believe there's any cloud that hangs over me.

- Governor- - Well, getting back to that, can we- - I think there's nothing but sunshine hanging over me.

- [Narrator] The walls were caving in, but if he was worried, Blagojevich certainly didn't show it.

- I should say, if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it.

(tense music) - [Narrator] 16 hours later, the world and the governor would find out that his challenge had been accepted.

- Breaking news, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been taken into federal custody.

- [Narrator] The day before his 52nd birthday, Governor Rod Blagojevich was handcuffed and charged with 24 counts of corruption, including racketeering, fraud, and extortion.

After being fingerprinted and booked, Blagojevich was released on bond, and went right back to being governor.

- I knew I didn't break any laws.

I've made all kinds of mistakes in life, and some when I was governor, but no laws, didn't break any of 'em.

Those conversations were all legal.

- [Narrator] Three weeks later, against the advice of nearly every elected Democrat in the country, Blagojevich appointed his choice for US Senate, former State Comptroller and Attorney General Roland Burris, who had run for governor and lost to Blagojevich.

- And now, I'd like to ask everyone to do one last thing.

Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man.

Ladies and gentlemen- - The media came down on me as I was an ordinary, unadulterated crook.

20 years of public service without a hint of a scandal with all types of pedigrees and help that, thousands of thousands of Illinoisans that I had helped.

It all meant nothing.

All of a sudden, Burris was a crook from this appointment, and that was, you know, that just tore at me.

- [Narrator] Despite the intense scrutiny, Burris served out Obama's two remaining years, and decided not to run for reelection.

(bell tolling) Blagojevich, on the other hand, was unseated, impeached by the Illinois House and Senate, and banned from holding public office in Illinois government.

While out awaiting trial, he made it clear he had no intention of going away quietly.

- I've been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest time- - Well, you're on in the worst way, believe me.

- That's right.

Seems like only yesterday I was the governor of the fifth largest state in America.

I have never done anything that would be a crime.

The tapes tell the whole story.

They charged me with political horse trading.

They ought to charge themselves with crimes and throw another count in there about hypocrisy- - [Jon] Yeah, I don't think they're gonna do that.

- I don't think they are either.

- [Narrator] The disgraced former governor was out of work and out of money, and that's when reality TV came calling.

- At the time, then-businessman Donald Trump headed up this "Celebrity Apprentice" in which he would, you know, famously fire somebody at the end of each episode, and Rod Blagojevich joined this.

It was, these were just absurd things that, you know, defendants typically wouldn't do, and certainly not public officials.

- I have great respect for you.

I have great respect for your tenacity, for the fact that you just don't give up.

But Rod, you're fired.

(dramatic music) - Looking back, probably the best thing I ever did, right, was going on that show, and getting fired by Donald Trump.

We had our children in school, and we paid private school.

We still have a $5,000 a month mortgage on the home I was arrested in, and we need income.

The one place where you can actually earn a living is entertainment.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] By the time the trial started in June, 2010, the media scrum that filled the sidewalk in front of the US Federal Courthouse was dubbed Blago-palooza.

- It was a circus from beginning to end.

He'd arrive every day, a phalanx of cameras would catch him coming in, hair combed perfectly, smile on his face, and then in the courtroom, you'd hear some really, really disturbing things about political misbehavior.

- [Narrator] The prosecution laid out a wide-ranging racketeering and conspiracy case with Rod Blagojevich as its kingpin.

A roster of the governor's closest aides and longtime friends testified against him, while the defendant's own voice rang out in the courtroom in 100 recorded calls.

- Almost every day, Rod would appear after the trial, and make some comments about how this was a witch hunt.

He'd done nothing wrong.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich's defense team vigorously argued that he did not try to sell the Senate seat, and that his actions were legal political horse trading, in other words, Illinois politics as usual.

- No one even accused me of taking any money.

They criminalized legal conversations and legal requests for campaign contributions.

- You just can't make an explicit quid pro quo deal, or an explicit promise to say, "If you do this, or if you don't raise money for me, "you're gonna lose your contract."

Rod never did that.

- [Narrator] It was up to the jury to decide was Rod Blagojevich a criminal, or just another politician?

(dramatic music) - And it's a mistrial on almost everything except for one count.

But what?

You just listened to these tapes of the governor trying to sell a Senate seat, and it's a mistrial?

I mean, everyone was pretty shocked.

- They could not prove that I did anything wrong, that I did break, that I did break any laws.

- [Narrator] Prosecutors wasted no time retrying Blagojevich, this time with a streamlined case and fewer charges all backed up by the audio recordings.

- I listened to all the tapes that were played at the trial and they were all very, very incriminating.

They were Rod trading official actions as governor in exchange for money.

That is illegal.

You are not allowed to take any official action in exchange for some kind of reward.

It's so simple.

And of course, the jury agreed.

- [Narrator] Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 counts of corruption, including wire fraud, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to solicit bribes.

- Afterward, the jury, they said, "We like Rod Blagojevich.

"You know, we found him endearing, "but we think that he broke the law.

"He just did."

- [Narrator] On December 7th, 2011, Blagojevich arrived at the courthouse with his wife to learn his fate.

- Rod Blagojevich went up and he, you know, he apologized, but he didn't quite take responsibility.

But at that point, the judge had taken a lot from him.

He thumbed his nose again and again at the judge, and the proceedings, and he handed down a 14-year sentence.

It was astounding.

It really was.

- I think for Rod Blagojevich, the belief was that he was going to fight this, that he was going to be okay, and what ended up happening was he was made an example out of.

- He never crossed any line as the Supreme Court defined it for political corruption.

He never took money from his campaign fund for personal use.

To give this person one of the highest sentences ever meted out to a public official is quite shocking and unfair.

- This is a time to be strong.

This is a time to fight through adversity.

This is a time for me to be strong for my children.

(people chattering) (tense music) - [Narrator] Three months later, Blagojevich headed to Colorado to report to federal prison.

Cameras followed him the whole way, even as he stopped for his last meal at a hamburger stand before walking into the lockup.

- Look, there's no sugarcoating this.

This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

And I have a hole in my heart.

It's an empty feeling.

- [Narrator] The former governor was surprised at the welcome he got from hardened inmates.

- The thing that really warmed them up to me, are you ready for this?

A 14-year prison sentence, because in that world, it says, "This dude, he didn't snitch on anybody," and there's a saying in prison, and that is that, "Snitches are bitches who get stitches."

I don't know if you can say that on public television, but that's what they say in prison.

- [Narrator] He spent most of his nearly 3,000 days in prison running and reading.

- I went from a 50,000 square foot governor's mansion to a six foot by eight foot prison cell.

and I'm in a prison with Gangster Disciples, and Crips and Bloods, and Sinaloa Cartel drug dealers who look up to El Chapo like my daughters look up to Taylor Swift.

There were murderers in there, 400 sex offenders, pedophiles, bank robbers, conmen, 2% white collar, one governor, me, real prison, like in the movies.

- [Narrator] Four years in, Blagojevich had a glimmer of hope when a court of appeals vacated five of his 18 counts on technical grounds, all related to the so-called sale of the Senate seat.

- They reversed those charges.

It was what I always said it was, routine political log rolling is what they called it, horse trading.

It's how the business works.

- [Narrator] The judge did not agree, and handed down the same 14-year sentence.

- How do you put me in prison for 14 years?

I never took a single penny.

I had a clean driving record, not to mention no criminal record.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Patti, who was not charged with any wrongdoing, stood by him, and raised their daughters on her own, relying on phone calls and visits a couple times a year.

- Two days after I was arrested, the Vegas odds makers were betting on whether the first lady of Illinois was gonna leave this scoundrel governor of Illinois, and it was nine to one.

They were betting nine to one Patti's leaving.

But she defied all the odds, kept our family together, kept us in our home, built her little business, raised our daughters.

That's how great she is.

(birds chirping) - [Narrator] After seven years behind bars, Blagojevich was out of legal appeals.

His only hope was a presidential pardon, or commutation.

On leaving office, Obama declined.

So Patti took her own appeal to an audience of one, President Trump.

- It's deja vu all over again.

You know, 10 years ago, these same people, Comey, Fitzgerald, Mueller, used these out of control prosecutors and FBI agents, came after my husband with their unchecked power to undo an election by the people.

They came after my husband- - [Narrator] After Patti's many strategic appearances on Fox News, she had caught Trump's attention.

- He served eight years in jail.

There's a long time to go.

Many people disagree with the sentence.

It was a prosecution by the same people, Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group.

- [Narrator] Rod Blagojevich learned that his sentence had been commuted from his fellow inmates.

- [Bystander] Rod, welcome home, Rod!

- [Narrator] And 14 hours later, he pulled up in front of his Ravenswood home for the first time in nearly eight years.

- Great anticipation to go home and see my children and Patti.

Tremendous amount of gratitude for President Trump, what he did.

So yeah, it was fantastic, and great, and liberating, no pun intended.

I felt liberated.

(tense music) - [Narrator] The commutation drew mixed reactions, with some supporting the decision as the correction of an overly harsh sentence, while others criticized it as undermining efforts to combat corruption.

- It was undeserved, because he had never accepted his responsibility, and was unwarranted.

- I'm glad he's out of jail.

I'm one of those people who thought the sentence was ridiculous, and that he should've never been in jail for that length of time.

(tense music) - [Narrator] A free man since his release in 2020, Rod Blagojevich says there is but one thing he would have done differently.

- I regret getting into politics.

Looking back, I should've just been a lawyer.

I was doing well.

You know, I was on my way to becoming a wealthy lawyer.

Our lives would've been so much easier and so much happier.

So in that respect, I wish I'd never got in the business.

(people chattering) (cheerful music) - [Narrator] In the meantime, Blago keeps being Blago, bringing back his Elvis act, and hoping for another day in the sun.

♪ Warden threw a party in the county jail ♪ ♪ Prison band was there and they began to wail ♪ ♪ Band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing ♪ ♪ You should've heard the knocked out jailbirds sing ♪ ♪ Let's rock ♪ - Rod Blagojevich is a tragedy.

He had it all, and he got to Springfield as a reform governor, and what he should've done is truly reformed the state, and passed his populist programs.

And yet, he had to somehow scheme his way into a more guaranteed future, and pride goes before the fall, and in Rod's case, the fall was pretty serious.

♪ Dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock ♪ (lively rock music) (video whirring) - Thank you.

Thank you very much.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)