The people of Illinois must be celebrating this morning. Blagojevich’s alleged crimes are just mind-boggling – including the attempted sale of Obama’s vacant Senate seat:
Regarding the Senate seat, the charges allege that Blagojevich, Harris and others have engaged and are engaging in efforts to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, to benefit Blagojevich and his family through corruptly using Blagojevich’s sole authority to appoint a successor to the unexpired term of the President-elect’s former Senate seat, which he resigned effective November 16. The affidavit details numerous conversations about the Senate seat between November 3 and December 5. In these conversations, Blagojevich repeatedly discussed the attributes of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois, and the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive if he appointed various of the possible candidates.
Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being “stuck” as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.
In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: “if . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.” Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”
He faces serious time if convicted:
If convicted, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while solicitation of bribery carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, and each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000. The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
Update:
There could be more – and a familiar name is popping up in all of this:
Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they’re also investigating “serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” under Mr Blagojevich.
Political fundraiser Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, who raised money for the campaigns of both Mr Blagojevich and Obama, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges.
Mr Blagojevich’s chief fundraiser, Christopher G Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.
Related:
Blagojevich’s Wikipedia Bio
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I spent the last two years living in Chicago and the one thing I could never get over was how accepted and even expected political corruption was. Though today’s news is a disappointment, it doesn’t come as a surprise.