* No surprise here…

President Barack Obama made his final grants of clemency on Thursday with less than a day left in office and imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was not on the list.

Blagojevich was handed a 14-year sentence on corruption charges, with one of the most sensational his attempt to “sell” the Illinois Senate seat then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was vacating after being elected president in November 2008.

The Justice Department earlier confirmed that Blagojevich, in year four of his imprisonment, filed a request to have his sentence commuted. He was arrested in December 2008, a few weeks after the presidential election.

Blagojevich’s bid for clemency from Obama was always extremely unlikely because of the nature of his offense. […]

Obama cut short the sentences of 330 federal inmates convicted of drug crimes on Thursday, with Obama focused on cutting the prison time of offenders with overly harsh sentences that would not be imposed under guidelines for judges in place today.

Some people insisted for years that Obama had some sort of special relationship with Blagojevich which would lead to a pardon. They were living in a fantasy land.

…Adding… Pool report forwarded by the White House press office…

A travel/photo lid has been called at 4:10 p.m. […]

And with that, Barack Obama’s final full day as president has come to an unofficial close.

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