Disgraced former governor whom Trump freed from jail sues for the right to run for office again

Disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was freed from prison last year after former President Donald Trump commuted his sentence, apparently wants to get back into politics.

ABC 7 Chicago reports that Blagojevich is claiming that it was unlawful for the Illinois General Assembly to bar him from running for statewide office in Illinois after he was impeached and convicted on corruption charges in 2009.

In an interview with ABC 7 Chicago, Blagojevich complained that his civil rights were violated by both his impeachment and his subsequent ban from running for public office in Illinois.

"I could legally run for President of the United States, but I can't run for alderman of the 33rd Ward," he said. "That's unconstitutional to pass a law against one person that he or she can't run for anything."

Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his attempt to sell off Barack Obama's former Senate seat to the highest bidder after the 2008 election, got to know Trump when he was a contestant on his "Celebrity Apprentice" reality TV show.

After Trump got elected president, the former Illinois governor's wife, Patti Blagojevich, regularly went on Fox News to lobby the president to pardon her husband, who served just over half of his prison sentence before Trump freed him.