2-year lobbying effort pays off in freedom for Blagojevich

CHICAGO (AP) — When Patti Blagojevich made repeated public pleas for her husband’s release from federal prison, there was no mistaking her intended audience: President Donald Trump. For nearly two years, the wife of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich made Trump’s own travails the centerpiece of the strategy to free her husband. She talked…