Perhaps the most telling moment of the news conference Rod Blagojevich held hours after President Donald Trump granted the disgraced ex-Illinois governor a full pardon came even before he answered a single question from the media scrum gathered outside his Ravenswood Manor home.

Trump's decision to commute Blagojevich's sentence was met with bipartisan criticism in Illinois. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said at the time that Trump "has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time."