Blagojevich guilty on false statements count (jury hung on other 23 counts)

ABC/WLS Chicago ^ | 8-17-10 | Paul Meincke

[an amused spectator]

They did not play all the tapes for a reason. Fitz expected them to call those witnesses. After they testified he would then play the tapes which contradict what they had testified to thereby catching them in perjury. Perjury can have five year sentence for each time you lie. If they lied four time on the stand that is twenty years.....Any of those people would save their own skin then spend twenty years or ten or five..... and I'm certain none of them remember exactly what they said ten minutes ago let alone two years ago....Perjury traps a FItz expertise.

Federal prosecutors are thugs with badges - an untouchable RICO gang.

[an amused spectator]

I smell jury tampering. I am sure the lone holdout’s every answer during jury selection will be scrutinized.

What part of blowing $50 million of taxpayer money on ANOTHER malicious prosecution don't you understand?

Fitzjerk & his babyfaced assistant prosethugs are teeing up a $50 million mulligan as we type.

Read this article: How to Avoid Going to Jail under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for Lying to Government Agents

http://library.findlaw.com/2004/May/11/147945.html

It's REALLY HARD to avoid "Lying to Government Agents". For example, if you submit a false time card to your boss, and he then sends the timecard to the feds as part of an audit required by them, if they felt like scrutinizing your timecard and spending their unlimited cash to prove that it was false, you couild be prosecuted for "Lying to Government Agents".

That's what they got Blago with. That's ALL they had, without Fitz nailing his crook political superiors.

[Kenny Bunk]

Stand by for remarks which can possibly be interpreted as "racist."

The next jury will consist of postal employees, welfare mothers, and a utility Hispanic yet to be named. Blago is guilty of a horrid crime:

Lese majesté.

Blago is in a mighty tight spot. He goes down or the POTUS does. BTW, merely by reading this post, according to a Federal Prosecutor, you are at the very least, an un-indicted co-conspirator.

[Kenny Bunk]

I see posts questioning the " hold-out" juror's honesty.

Lemme tellya, I would have held out on this jury till the cows came home for Christmas. I also think that Blago is the most corrupt government man since Pontius Pilate. However, that doesn't mean he can be left holding the bag for all of Team Obama and be convicted on NO EVIDENCE and NO WITNESSES.

Juror Erik Sarnello of Itasca, Ill., said one woman on the jury, “just didn’t see what we all saw.”
No, young Erik. 11 Americans, Illinois Ani, or whatever the hell they were, including you, need a kick in the ass and an optometrist.

[penelopesire]

Hmmmm....Fitz has lost his friggin mind or else the FBI job offer didn’t come through the way he planned. Why would he want to retry this case and waste millions of tax-payer dollars? I don’t get it unless his fragile ego is crippled from losing yet another case. Jackson should have stayed in Spain...lol.

[NonValueAdded]

The 21-year-old Sarnello ...

stop right there, a 21 year old??? Holy carp, what the heck do they know about anything? That constitutes a jury of one's peers??? I was inclined to think the holdout was bought and paid for but had no foundation for that thought. Now I wonder if Blago was saved by the only adult in the room.

And if a total conviction was only one vote away from becoming a reality, I'd put the victory celebration on hold as Blago is sitting on a knife edge.

[CutePuppy]

Why would he want to retry this case and waste millions of tax-payer dollars?

Better question is, why wouldn't he want to spend millions of taxpayers money on his investigations and trials?

Entrapment is what he does. That's what he does best. That's what he lives for. That's his MO. Many of his trials end in convictions only on "Lying to federal agents" charge, with no convictions on main charges. That shows that often he either "investigates" a non-crime (such as fraudulent case against Lewis Libby) or doesn't do a good job of prosecuting actual crimes, because he relies on the "process crime" convictions - minor discrepancies in recollection against some recorded "evidence" (taped, electronic or paper).

If he weren't prosecuting in thoroughly corrupted places like IL (or DC, as with Libby) he wouldn't have much of a career. That's why he stays put for so long where the Peter principle placed him.

I am not defending corruption by Blago by any means but, for instance, for the criminal, illegal "sale" of Senate seat to happen, the seller must have a buyer (who should also be prosecuted, unless being part of the "sting" operation)... but did Fitz produce any "buyers" during the trial, or evidence that transaction was about to happen? Or did he produce only the list of people Blago was "expecting" / daydreaming to be buyers in his recorded conversations with Robert? In Chicago people could easily take this to be a "thought crime". Of course, most pols are smarter than Blago and do the "sale" of favors through the third-party organizations or on a "deferred payout" basis (see Clintons, Gores, Cuomos, Kennedys...) - something which is just as, if not more, corrupt, but is considered a "horsetrading" and is technically "legal" unless hard evidence is found and prosecuted.

Fitz's ego and unpredictability make it unlikely that he will be appointed anywhere near DC in a position of such authority that he could present danger to TPTB, no matter how good his resume may look on paper, as opposed to reality. And in part, it's the aftermath of prosecutorial misconduct and blatant abuse of power in overturned Ted Steven's case and in purely partisan political witchhunt of Libby (which put the fear of runaway prosecutor with unlimited unchecked powers even into the hearts of liberals in DC, despite their obvious delight of "getting" high Bush administration official - who is married to and at one point was "one of their own").

[STARWISE]

The 21-year-old Sarnello ...

~~~~

Yeah .. think about all the voting age college kids in the summer, or just out of college (and all ages, as well) out of work ..nothing but time on their hands, thanks to the Imperial Dictator in DC.

As maggie mentioned, won’t surprise me to see some of the
jurors already being pursued by publishers, and who’ll be more than happy to reap some financial reward from their summer service with books.

[STARWISE]

“But the defense will also get to call
Rezko, Emanuel, Jarrett, SEIU Tom
Balanoff, maybe -0 and other IL/Chicago
thug/union elements, etc. “

I don’t understand. If they can call them next time, why didn’t they call them first go round?

~~~~~

Neither the defense nor prosecution called them .. obviously VERY delicate subjects in the whole scheme.. many chances for fallout on Blago AND the DC/Chicago crew .. Chicago Slime is indiscriminate LOL.. That’ll likely change in the next trial.

[STARWISE]

TOOOOO true! Well done.

[Impy]

I understand if you choose to vote for Claypool. Though I’m disinclined to do so myself.

I’m not aware of any polling for that race. If it was clearly a 2 way race between Claypool and Berrios I’d have to at least consider it. That probably is the situation. GOP has been pathetic in county-wide races. Comparing it to the Lieberman election is apt though I don’t know if any GOP leaders are backing Claypool as they did Liarman. I REALLY don’t want to vote for him and probably won’t.

[penelopesire]

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. I still think he is going to be rewarded somehow for his democrat partisan hack attacks in some way but you could be right that no-one wants to touch him in DC.

[PhilCollins]

In the Cook Co. assessor race, I’ll vote for the Republican, Sharon Eckersall. I hope that the democrat vote will split, helping her win, with 40%-45% of the vote.