(WSIL) -- Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is suing the state over the impeachment process that led to his removal. The decision could decide whether or not Blagojevich can once again run for public office in Illinois.
Nearly 600 days after leaving a Colorado prison, Blagojevich on Monday stepped into the same Chicago courthouse where he was convicted in 2011. This time he went in as a plaintiff.
The federal lawsuit claims the impeachment process violated Blagojevich's constitutional right to due process. According to the complaint, the state senate's vote to disqualify Blagojevich from holding state or public office in Illinois is unconstitutional.
"This decision is the people's decision," Blagojevich said. "It's not the decision of a whole bunch of politicians in Springfield."
Blagojevich wrote the 10-page complaint on his own behalf. The former governor is seeking an injunction that prevents Illinois from enforcing his right to run for office. According to the lawsuit, the disqualification violates the Sixth and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The suit also requests a declaratory judgement to render the disqualification provision as 'null and void.' Documents contend that the disqualification violates the First Amendment by limiting voters' choices through impeachment hearings and violates due process.
"It's not really so much about my right as it is about your right," Blagojevich said.
Court documents allege the impeachment process didn't allow Blagojevich present a complete set of FBI recordings or call witnesses.
"I'd like to call [then House Speaker] Mike Madigan... who for 40 years presided over a rotten political establishment," Blagojevich said.
In 2009, lawmakers released four of audio ranging from 35 seconds to two minutes. The lawsuit says a seal order from court prevents hundreds of hours of FBI recordings from being released. Blagojevich says releasing all of the tapes would've convinced given him a victory in the court of public opinion.
"What I don't say is 'I want millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account,'" Blagojevich said. "That would be the sale of a Senate seat. That would be a crime and that would be right to send me to prison."
In June 2011, Blagojevich was convicted on multiple counts of corruption, alleging he tried to sell then-former senator Barack Obama's senate seat. Blagojevich was sentenced to 14-years in prison in December later that year.
"[T]he centerpiece of their case was that I was trying to sell Obama's senate seat," Blagojevich said. "Well that was a big lie."
In July 2015, the Illinois Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals cleared Blagojevich of the senate seat allegations, characterizing them as 'routine political log rolling' according to the lawsuit.
But in August 2016, five months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, a judge resentenced Blagojevich to his original 14-year prison term. Blagojevich says the lawsuit isn't about going back in the political circuit although he didn't rule it out.
"I also don't want to mislead anybody to think that I wouldn't ever run for anything," Blagojevich said. "It's unlikely that I would. I'm not planning to do it."
In a stunning move, President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich's 14-year sentence in February 2020. Blagojevich served 95 months, more than half his sentence, before his release.
