Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) spoke with Breitbart News about former President Donald Trump’s indictment and said the establishment is targeting Trump because “he won’t play ball, he won’t do things their way.”

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Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle noted Blagojevich’s past political persecution and asked the former Illinois governor to speak about why the political establishment and Manhattan’s district attorney’s office are targeting Trump.

Blagojevich explained that Trump is being indicted because “He’s challenging the establishment.”

“It’s very simple. It’s because he’s challenging the establishment. He won’t play ball, he won’t do things their way,” he said. “He’s approaching government and doing things differently. And as a result of that, he’s a threat not only to the Democrats, but he threatens the traditional Washington, DC, elite country club Republicans.”

He added, “This is what happens when you truly take on the establishment. This is what happens when you truly are out there. Keeping your promises to the people, shake things up. And I think the political cynics, which is most of the people in that business, were surprised that when Trump actually won, he actually was doing the things he said he was going to do when he was running. They just think when you say those things, this is just the stuff you say to get elected.”

Blagojevich then discussed how he spent eight years in prison “for non existent crimes for politics.”

“I was in prison for eight years for non existent crimes, for politics, for discussing a potential political deal that began because Obama sent an emissary to me to talk about that deal. Now, he didn’t do anything wrong, but neither did I,” Blagojevich said. “And then they kept me in prison.”

He explained that Americans should not have “our elected officials stolen from us for things that aren’t crimes.”

He said, “And so my argument to anybody who’s willing to listen is this is not a partisan issue. It shouldn’t be Republicans versus Democrats … should be, you know, an American issue, a we the people issue, not having our elected officials stolen from us for things that aren’t crimes, you get a corrupt politician who has taken cash or something that’s a different story, by all means, you know, put them in prison or they’re benefiting at some insider stock trading or something, whatever that might be. But that’s not was. That wasn’t the case with me. It’s not the case of Trump.”

Blagojevich believes the political establishment used his imprisonment as a “test case” before trying to jail a former president.

He said, “And so when I see what they’re doing to President Trump, Matt, I say this a lot, but it’s true, they were able, I believe, to use me as a test case. They did the Democratic governor at the AAA level, with successfully what they’ve been trying to do to a Republican president to major league level. And I think they believe that once they could do that to a governor, oh, we can take this to the next level now and do it to a president. And if Trump just played ball, they would have left him alone, but he won’t. And now he’s running again. And this is why they’re doing this to him again, because they know that he’s very competitive and could very well win again. And if he wins again, he’s learned a lot of hard lessons. And he’s going to know how to deal with that establishment deep state a lot more intelligently, a lot better. Because he’s learned a lot of hard lessons about how business is done there.

Boyle then asked Blagojevich to talk about what he sees happening next in Trump’s case and provide any insight for Trump as someone who has been politically persecuted.

Blagojevich praised Trump for being a “very strong man, a determined man,” and predicted he would not give in to the establishment’s wants.

He also expects those who are turned off by Trump’s personality to rally behind the former president due to the political persecution.

“How does it play out? I think those people who love President Trump and millions of people across America will love him even more. And I think they’re going to support him even more,” he said. “And I think those who are sort of feel like maybe its just parts of his personality, and maybe DeSantis would be the better candidate, because we definitely want to beat the Democrats in 2024, I think that group of people will rally behind Trump because they see this terrible injustice thats being done to him.”

Blagojevich expects the indictment to “catapult Trump to the Republican nomination.”

For advice on how to get through the persecution, Blagojevich recommends Trump simply be himself.

Blagojevich said, “Just be yourself. Be true to yourself, President Trump. I don’t have to give him this advice. He’s going to do it. This guy is different from people in politics. He’s going to do it. And, by being true to himself, you’ll get that result politically. But more importantly, they’ll be in a place where he can go after this deep state and bring the necessary changes in reforms. He’ll need help from the Republicans in Congress and other good men and women of goodwill. And, frankly, save our republic, because I’ll tell you something. This is really a frightening thing.

He also called on Democrats to “put their hatred of Trump behind their love of America and not stand for something like this.”

“This is such BS, what they’re doing to him in New York, and what they’re trying to do to him in these other places. Don’t stand for it, because they’re destroying our republic in our democracy and our freedom,” Blagojevich concluded. “It’s our right to choose our leaders in elections, not have these weaponized prosecutors criminalize things and turn us into, like we’ve been saying, third world Republic, third world countries or so the Soviet Union.”

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.