“I would much prefer she (remain in the White House) but
she does want to be Senator and she does meet those two criteria,” Balanoff said Obama told him.
“I said: ‘thank you, I’m going to reach out to Gov. Blagojevich.”
Balanoff then described a Nov. 6, 2008 meeting he had with Rod Blagojevich to recommend Valerie Jarrett for Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
Blagojevich responded that he was in “active discussions” with the Madigans about appointing Lisa Madigan and was holding out for a legislative package with the House speaker.
“I said that could be months. He said, ‘Yeah’. I said Valerie Jarrett, I don’t believe she has that kind of time,” Balanoff testified.
Blago then turned the conversation to a cabinet position, Balanoff said.
“He said, ‘You know, I love being governor, but my real passion is health care,’” and then he asked about the Health and Human Services cabinet post.
“I told him that’s not going to happen,” Balanoff said. “He said, “Is that because of all the investigations around me?”
~~~~~~~~~
“I would much prefer she (remain in the White House) but
she does want to be Senator and she does meet those two criteria,” Balanoff said Obama told him.
_______________________________________
Why do I keep thinking ‘somebody’ in the US Atty’s office network tipped off the WH about the impending investigation via one of their Chicago insiders, and they backed off the Jarrett choice ?
Why do I keep thinking ‘somebody’ in the US Atty’s office network tipped off the WH about the impending investigation via one of their Chicago insiders, and they backed off the Jarrett choice ?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/2336924,CST-NWS-blagoprose31.article
Leading the government’s team will be Schar, 38, a Northwestern University Law School graduate who has tried some 157 cases for the federal government since 1999, including fraud and corruption cases. He graduated undergrad from Stanford University with departmental honors, clerked for U.S. District Judge Elaine E. Bucklo and worked as an associate with Sidley & Austin from 1998-1999.
“Anyone in the office would say Reid is one of the best trial lawyers in recent memory,” said Cramer. “Reid knows how to structure a case with a lot of moving pieces.”
In the Blagojevich case, that will include cooperating witnesses, playing 97 recorded conversations, referring to seized documents, analyzing bank and tax records.
They will try to convince the jury that Blagojevich was a greedy, desperate politician, grasping at a chance to benefit from his power to appoint a replacement to President Obama’s vacant Senate seat. But the prosecution has a wide-ranging case that will delve into Rod Blagojevich’s — and his wife, Patti’s — dealings with Tony Rezko, who is not expected to take the stand.
“Reid is extremely adept at weaving a cohesive, coherent and persuasive narrative,” Cramer said. “He’s probably one of the best I’ve ever seen do that.”
Niewoehner, 40, was the lead prosecutor in the Rezko case as well as the corruption case against former 10th Ward Ald. Edward Vrdolyak. He earned his law degree from Harvard with high honors and joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2000. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Milton I. Shadur from 1997 to 1998 and worked as an associate at Sidley Austin from 1998-2000.
Hamilton, 39, is a Bloomington native and a 1996 Northwestern Law School graduate who also worked as an associate at Katten Muchin as well as Grippo & Elden. Hamilton joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago in 2001 and prosecuted Muhammad Salah, a Bridgeview man accused of fund-raising for a Palestinian terrorist organization, and ex-Death Row inmate Aaron Patterson.
Also on the trial team are FBI, IRS and U.S. Postal Service investigative agents, including FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain. Working behind the scenes is FBI supervisory agent Patrick Murphy, described by insiders as the architect of the underlying Operation Board Games investigation, which included the cases against Blagojevich, Rezko, Stuart Levine, Ed Vrdolyak and businessman William Cellini.
. Precisely, Been thinking along the same lines, but thought the tinfoil was just getting tight