How Patti Blagojevich helped earn her husband's release

CHICAGO - For most of her time as Illinois first lady, Patti Blagojevich preferred a behind-the-scenes role, advising her husband on myriad topics while building a real estate career that leaned heavily on the couple's clout.

But since her husband's arrest nearly a dozen years ago, Blagojevich has commanded the spotlight as she has done almost anything - from eating bugs on reality television to courting President Donald Trump - to help win her husband's freedom. She has made scores of public pleas on his behalf over the past decade on television and social media, usually painting her family as the victims of overzealous prosecutors and political enemies.

And in many of her carefully crafted pleas, only President Trump had the brains and the bravado to remedy the perceived injustice.

"They are trying to undo elections and play politics instead of doing what they are supposed to do," she said on Fox News in 2018. "It takes a strong leader like President Trump to right these wrongs."

Her constant flattery