Posted on 08/23/2010 4:54:58 PM PDT by STARWISE
After 14 days of jury deliberation, we have a verdict in the trial of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. And I don’t think there’s a soul outside of the Blagojevich camp who believes justice was served.
According to The New York Times:
Prosecutors here once said that the conduct of Rod R. Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, was so despicable it would make Abraham Lincoln “roll over in his grave,” but 12 jurors in the federal corruption case against him were apparently not all so certain.
After deliberating for 14 days, the jury found Mr. Blagojevich guilty of a single criminal count — making false statements to the F.B.I., which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one of the least severe penalties in the charges against him.
If you read the press coverage of this verdict, it is clear that public reaction to the verdict is nearly universal: “One count? That’s it!? Is this a joke?”
No, it’s no joke. And, truthfully, this is the result I expected after the government wrapped up its case. It looked like the prosecution’s case was distorted in order to protect President Obama, Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett. It’s that simple.
Let me explain.
As you know, we sent our Corruption Chronicles reporter to Chicago to report on the Blagojevich trial first-hand. Her name is Irene Garcia, and you can read some of her outstanding trial coverage by clicking here.
But let me just give you a couple of quick highlights from Irene’s reporting:
1.Blagojevich’s former Chief of Staff John Harris testified that President Obama had personal knowledge of Blagojevich’s scheme to get his hands on a presidential cabinet position by appointing a candidate handpicked by the president to take over Obama’s former Senate seat.
2.Obama’s preferred candidate, at least initially, according to testimony, was Valerie Jarrett, currently the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.
(Obama and Jarrett go all the way back to the days when Obama was a law professor and Jarrett a corrupt slumlord.)
3.Explosive federal wiretaps played at trial captured Blagojevich offering Obama’s Senate seat for a cabinet position.
In one conversation, Blagojevich told Harris he wanted to be named Secretary of Health and Human Services if Valerie Jarrett got Obama’s seat. If Health Secretary “was available to me I could do Valerie Jarrett in a heartbeat," Blagojevich said.
4.The president also sent Blagojevich a list of other “acceptable” Senate candidates to fill his old seat. The list included Tammy Duckworth, Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, according to Harris.
Harris also testified that three days after the 2008 presidential election Blagojevich told him he felt confident Obama wanted to swap perks.
5.Blagojevich repeatedly ferried messages to President Obama through White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
For example, John Harris testified that Blagojevich asked him to call Emanuel to see if the president was “still in agreement” that the Senate seat should go to Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
(The evidence suggests that Rep. Jackson, Jr. separately sought the Senate seat in exchange for a $1 million payoff.)
It looked to me that the trial was turning into a political nightmare for the Obama White House. And this may explain why the prosecution shut their case down a month early.
Immediately following the Blagojevich verdict, federal prosecutors promised to quickly retry the case, leading the Washington Post to speculate whether the Obama White House would be dragged into the mess this time around:
…if U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald has his way, there will be a new trial. New attempts by the prosecution to build a case against Blagojevich. New efforts by the defense to subpoena Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett to the stand.
It might be no more likely that Jarrett and Emanuel would actually testify in court, but just the prospect will generate headlines again — headlines that would not aid the president's goal of keeping his administration focused on the economy.
Let’s hope prosecutors get it right this time. I suspect that Eric Holder’s politicized Justice Department interfered with the investigation conducted by the reputedly independent U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. This trial and our independent investigation showed Obama lied about his communications with Blago. This is a serious case that demands an investigation and prosecution untainted by politics.
If and when there is a new trial, Irene will once again be back on the job, and I will continue to keep you posted in this space.
** Ping!
on the other charges - 1 juror held out...11 were for conviction
If the one hold-out was not a plant, he/she is an independent contractor. I’d love to see how his/her finances change over the next year.
Blago knows where the bodies are buried....
Justice would only be served if Blago were to take Rezko, JJjr, Rham, Valerie and Zer0 down with him.
The holdout juror was a retired black woman who was a federal employee who bragged to neighbors in July she was going to find him not guilty-before she heard any evidence.The fix was in from the start.
I still say that Fitz should'a brought as much of Chicago down as possible, not just the boy clown.
I believe the 11-1 vote was on the selling of
the senate seat charge, that it was unanimous
on the lying to the Feds charge, and that there
were mixed votes on the other charges.
Blago knows where the bodies are buried....
~~~~
Yes he does .. all of them.
No way will there be anything that obvious. Ubama and the rest of the animals are from Chicago, where corruption is an art form.
First I'm hearing this and wonder why FNC didn't mention it. Where did you get this from?
And did anybody really expect anything else? After obummer claimed he didn’t know him and then you see the pictures of them together chummy over and over you know it is chicago politics as usual and that hanging him out could never fly. I am totally amazed they found him guilty on one charge. If it weren’t for the level of rage the people are at now they would not have, but they have to slap his hand a little to keep the people from going off on them. The system calculates each and every move very carefully in order to progress their agenda as rapidly as possible but yet not push it so hard as to totally enrage the citizens.
Rowdy
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