In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 16-‐‑3254
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-‐‑Appellee,
v.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH,
Defendant-‐‑Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
No. 08 CR 888 — James B. Zagel, Judge.
____________________
ARGUED APRIL 18, 2017 — DECIDED APRIL 21, 2017
____________________
Before EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge. Rod Blagojevich was con-‐‑
victed of 18 crimes committed while he was Governor of Il-‐‑
linois. The district court sentenced him to 168 months’ im-‐‑
prisonment. Our initial opinion vacated five of the convic-‐‑
tions but affirmed the others and remanded for a potential
retrial on the five vacated charges and for resentencing. 794
F.3d 729 (7th Cir. 2015). Blagojevich asked the Supreme
Court to review that decision, and while the petition for cer-‐‑
2 No. 16-‐‑3254
tiorari was pending the district court put proceedings in
abeyance. After the Supreme Court denied the petition, 136
S. Ct. 1491 (2016), rehearing denied, 136 S. Ct. 2386 (2016),
the prosecutor announced that the five vacated charges
would not be retried, and the district judge resentenced
Blagojevich on the remaining 13 convictions.
The sentence was again 168 months. As before, the judge
determined that the Sentencing Guidelines recommend a
term within the range of 360 months to life, then made some
reductions that produced a final range of 151 to 188 months.
(Our first opinion rejected a challenge to that range. See 794
F.3d at 743.) The judge recognized that 168 months is a stiff
sentence for non-‐‑violent crimes by someone with no criminal
record and unlikely to commit the same kinds of crimes
again, because his impeachment and removal from office by
the state legislature makes him ineligible for election to a
new state office. Ill. Const. Art. IV §14. But the judge con-‐‑
cluded that the sentence is justified by the gravity of Blago-‐‑
jevich’s offenses and the need to deter other public officials
from acting as Blagojevich did.
Our first opinion stated: “It is not possible to call 168
months unlawfully high for Blagojevich’s crimes, but the
district judge should consider on remand whether it is the
most appropriate sentence.” 794 F.3d at 743. The judge did
consider that issue in the new sentencing and stuck by his
conclusion. Despite what we said in 2015, in this successive
appeal Blagojevich contends that the sentence is unlawfully
high. He makes three contentions: first that the judge should
not have rejected evidence of what Blagojevich calls his “ex-‐‑
traordinary” rehabilitation while in prison; second that the
judge should have revised the sentence in light of the dis-‐‑
No. 16-‐‑3254 3
missal of the five vacated counts; third that the judge failed
to address an argument about sentencing disparities. We
consider these in turn.
Pepper v. United States, 562 U.S. 476, 481 (2011), holds that
“when a defendant’s sentence has been set aside on appeal, a
district court at resentencing may consider evidence of the
defendant’s postsentencing rehabilitation and that such evi-‐‑
dence may, in appropriate cases, support a downward vari-‐‑
ance from the now-‐‑advisory Federal Sentencing Guidelines
range.” Blagojevich’s original sentence was imposed in De-‐‑
cember 2011, and he entered prison in March 2012. He sub-‐‑
mitted evidence that between then and the new sentencing
in August 2016 he had helped other inmates with their edu-‐‑
cations and set an example of moral and caring behavior.
The district judge acknowledged this evidence but found
that it did not justify a lower sentence, in large part because
none of the other inmates had known Blagojevich while he
held office and therefore could not show that he had funda-‐‑
mentally changed his attitude toward corrupt dealing. The
judge demonstrated that he understood the extent of discre-‐‑
tion under Pepper and did not need to explain at greater
length why he found the new evidence unpersuasive. See
Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 356–59 (2007) (brief reasons
suffice). Blagojevich’s treatment of fellow inmates may show
that outside of office he is an admirable person, but the court
was entitled to impose punishment that reflects how Blago-‐‑
jevich behaved when he had a different menu of opportuni-‐‑
ties and to deter those who hold office today. The authority
recognized by Pepper belongs to the district judge. As with
many discretionary subjects the fact that a judge could have
4 No. 16-‐‑3254
ruled otherwise does not imply that the judge was compelled
to rule otherwise.
Blagojevich’s contention that the vacatur of five convic-‐‑
tions calls for a lower sentence likewise was considered by
the district judge, who observed that the remaining counts of
conviction represent the same kind of conduct as the vacated
counts. We did not hold that Blagojevich was innocent of the
charges in the vacated counts; we concluded, rather, that the
jury instructions did not separate political horse trading
(Blagojevich’s offer to appoint someone to the Senate in ex-‐‑
change for the President’s promise to appoint him to the
Cabinet) from extortion and similar crimes (Blagojevich’s
offer to appoint someone to the Senate in exchange for cash).
794 F.3d at 734. The district judge, who presided over two
lengthy trials, was free to consider all of the evidence even
though the prosecutor elected not to retry these five counts.
The district judge also observed that the vacatur did not af-‐‑
fect the Guidelines range. Given the standards of Rita, the
judge said enough to justify the sentence.
The third argument about sentencing is that the district
judge did not address Blagojevich’s contention, based on 18
U.S.C. §3553(a)(6), that a 168-‐‑month sentence would produce
an unwarranted disparity compared with the sentences met-‐‑
ed out to other persons convicted of corruption in political
office. The problem with this argument is that the Sentenc-‐‑
ing Guidelines are themselves an anti-‐‑disparity formula, and
the Supreme Court stated in Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38
(2007), that to base a sentence on a properly determined
Guidelines range is to give adequate consideration to the re-‐‑
lation between the defendant’s sentence and those of other
persons:
No. 16-‐‑3254 5
Section 3553(a)(6) requires judges to consider “the need to avoid
unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with simi-‐‑
lar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct.” The
Court of Appeals stated that “the record does not show that the
district court considered whether a sentence of probation would
result in unwarranted disparities.” 446 F.3d at 890. As with the
seriousness of the offense conduct, avoidance of unwarranted
disparities was clearly considered by the Sentencing Commis-‐‑
sion when setting the Guidelines ranges. Since the District Judge
correctly calculated and carefully reviewed the Guidelines range,
he necessarily gave significant weight and consideration to the
need to avoid unwarranted disparities.
552 U.S. at 54 (emphasis added). See also, e.g., United States
v. Bartlett, 567 F.3d 901, 907–09 (7th Cir. 2009); United States
v. Boscarino, 437 F.3d 634, 638–39 (7th Cir. 2006). District
judges have discretion to sentence outside a Guidelines
range, but as we observed in Bartlett such a step comes at the
expense of increased disparities; it is never compelled by
§3553(a)(6) in order to avoid unwarranted disparities. 567
F.3d at 908–09. The district judge gave a sentence within the
revised Guidelines range he constructed—a range that
Blagojevich does not now contend is too high—and therefore
did not need to discuss §3553(a)(6) separately.
In addition to contesting the sentence imposed on re-‐‑
mand, Blagojevich contends that our 2015 opinion erred to
the extent it affirmed any of his convictions. We do not see a
need to elaborate on or depart from what that decision said
about the merits. We offer only a few words about McDon-‐‑
nell v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2355 (2016), which postdates
our opinion.
According to Blagojevich, McDonnell calls the reasoning
of our first decision into question. Not so. The only issue be-‐‑
fore the Court was whether McDonnell had traded “official
6 No. 16-‐‑3254
acts” for money and other benefits. The Justices considered
the definition of “official act” in 18 U.S.C. §201(a)(3) and
concluded that McDonnell’s jury had been instructed incor-‐‑
rectly. Blagojevich, by contrast, has never contended that the
activities of appointing someone to a vacant seat in the Sen-‐‑
ate, signing legislation, or the other activities that a jury
found he sought to profit from, were not “official acts” of a
state’s governor.
Blagojevich’s remaining arguments do not require dis-‐‑
cussion.
AFFIRMED