Jury convicts ousted Illinois governor for trying to sell Obama's old Senate sea

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Jury convicts ousted Illinois governor for trying to sell Obama's old Senate

seat

By Tarm, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 22 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been convicted of 17 of the

20 charges against him, many related to his attempt to sell or trade President

Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Jurors deadlocked on one charge of attempted extortion in an alleged shakedown

involving funding for a school in the district of then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel.

The jury found Blagojevich not guilty of soliciting bribes in the alleged

shakedown of a road-building executive. The panel deadlocked on a charge of

attempted extortion on that same case.

Blagojevich rode his talkative " everyman " image to two terms as Illinois

governor before scandal made him the object of national jokes.

Because the allegations had to do with Obama's Senate seat — and because

Blagojevich never hesitated to talk about himself when media cameras were around

— the case attracted national attention.

The verdict was a bitter defeat for Blagojevich, who had spent 2 1/2 years

professing his innocence on reality TV shows and later on the witness stand.

His defence team had insisted that hours of FBI wiretap recordings were just the

ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud. He faces up to 300 years

in prison, although sentencing guidelines are sure to reduce his time behind

bars.

He also faces up to five additional years in prison for his previous conviction

of lying to the FBI.

After hearing the verdict, Blagojevich turned to defence attorney Sheldon

Sorosky and asked " What happened? " His wife, Patti, slumped against her brother,

then rushed into her husband's arms.

The former governor spoke only briefly with reporters as he left the courthouse,

saying he was disappointed and stunned by the verdict.

" Well, among the many lessons I've learned from this whole experience is to try

to speak a little bit less, so I'm going to keep my remarks kind of short, "

Blagojevich said, adding that the couple wanted " to get home to our little girls

and talk to them and explain things to them and then try to sort things out. "

Monday's decision capped a long-running spectacle in which Blagojevich became

famous for blurting on a recorded phone call that his ability to appoint Obama's

successor to the Senate was " f---ing golden " and that he wouldn't let it go " for

f---ing nothing. "

Judge Zagel has ruled that Blagojevich will be barred from travelling

outside the area without permission from the judge. A status hearing for

sentencing was set for Aug. 1.

The case exploded into scandal when Blagojevich was awakened by federal agents

on Dec. 9, 2008, at his Chicago home and was led away in handcuffs. Federal

prosecutors had been investigating his administration for years, and some of his

closest cronies had already been convicted.

" The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave, " U.S. Attorney

Fitzgerald said before a bank of television cameras after the arrest.

Blagojevich was swiftly impeached and removed from office.

The first jury deadlocked on all but the least serious of 24 charges against

him.

This time, the 12 jurors voted to convict the 54-year-old Blagojevich on most

counts after deliberating nine days.

After his arrest, Blagojevich called federal prosecutors " cowards and liars " and

challenged Fitzgerald to face him in court if he was " man enough. "

In what many saw as embarrassing indignities for a former governor, he sent his

wife to the jungle for a reality television show, " I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out

of Here, " where she had to eat a tarantula.

He later showed his own ineptitude at simple office skills before being fired on

Trump's " Celebrity Apprentice. "

To most Illinois residents, he was a reminder of the corruption that has plagued

the state for decades.

Blagojevich seemed to believe he could talk his way out of trouble from the

witness stand. Indignant one minute, laughing the next, seemingly in tears once,

he endeavoured to counteract the blunt, greedy man he appeared to be on FBI

wiretaps. He apologized to jurors for the four-letter words that peppered the

recordings.

" When I hear myself swearing like that, I am an F-ing jerk, " he told jurors.

Other times, when a prosecutor read wiretap transcripts where Blagojevich seems

to speak clearly of trading the Senate seat for a job, Blagojevich told jurors,

" I see what I say here, but that's not what I meant. "

The government offered a starkly different assessment to jurors: Blagojevich was

a liar, and had continued to lie, over and over, to their faces.