Illinois governor arrested?Follow

Well this was unexpected. Bwahahahahahahahahah

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/12/report-feds-arr.html

Illinois governor charged with public corruption
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Update at 9:53 a.m. ET: Here's the formal complaint and news release that we received from the Justice Department.

Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: USA TODAY's Judy Keen has confirmed with prosecutors that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning on federal corruption charges.

The U.S. attorney's office says the Democratic governor and his chief of staff, John Harris, are accused of soliciting bribes and committing wire fraud.

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism. The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions,” he adds.

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: The Associated Press says Blagojevich and his chief of staff were taken into custody.

Update at 9:26 a.m. ET: The Chicago Sun-Times says it has confirmed the Blagojevich arrest with an unnamed source of its own. A news conference is expected later today.

Original posting at 9:21 a.m. ET: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning by federal agents, according to the Chicago Tribune. The paper, which cites a single unnamed source, says it couldn't confirm the information with a spokesman for the Democratic governor or federal prosecutors.

The charges have not been disclosed.

The FBI has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation of corruption in the Blagojevich administration.

Earlier this morning, the Trib reported that federal investigators were authorized to surreptitiously record the governor while he was choosing a replacement for President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

The formal complaint:

Since approximately 2003, the government has been investigating allegations of illegal activity occurring in State of Illinois government as part of the administration of Governor Rod Blagojevich. As further detailed below, the investigation has developed evidence that: (a) beginning not later than in or about 2002, Rod Blagojevich has conspired with multiple individuals, including, beginning not later than in or about October 2008, John Harris, to devise and participate in a scheme, which used and contemplated the use of the mails and interstate wire communications, to defraud the State of Illinois and its residents of the honest services of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris by corruptly using the office of Governor of the State of Illinois to obtain and attempt to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, for Rod Blagojevich and third parties with whom he is associated; and (b) beginning no later than November 2008, Rod Blagojevich and John Harris have corruptly solicited and demanded the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Rod Blagojevich, intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with State of Illinois financial assistance in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field. The evidence demonstrates that the corrupt conduct undertaken included but was not limited to the following:

a. Defendant Rod Blagojevich and at times defendant John Harris, together with others, obtained and attempted to obtain financial benefits for Rod Blagojevich, members of the Blagojevich family, and third parties including Friends of Blagojevich, in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state employment, state contracts, and access to state funds; b. Defendants Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, together with others, offered to, and threatened to withhold from, the Tribune Company substantial state financial assistance in connection with Wrigley Field, which assistance Rod Blagojevich believed to be worth at least $100 million to the Tribune Company, for the private purpose of inducing the controlling shareholder of the Tribune Company to fire members of the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper owned by the Tribune Company, who were responsible for editorials critical of Rod Blagojevich; c. Defendants Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, together with others, attempted to use Rod Blagojevich’s authority to appoint a United States Senator for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for Rod Blagojevich, including, among other things, appointment as Secretary of Health & Human Services in the President-elect’s administration, and alternatively, a lucrative job which they schemed to induce a union to provide to Rod Blagojevich in exchange for appointing as senator an individual whom Rod Blagojevich and John Harris believed to be favored by union officials and their associates.

What's his involvement with the Tribune?

Will this be the papers death blow?

The Tribune or the person that own's the Tribune is about to file bankruptcy, I wonder how this will play into it. The fact that Chicago is full of crooked politicians makes it more obvious in this latest attempt.

Looks like the Trib is saved!

I, for one, look forward to editorials by Bat-Boy.

Edit: Rostenkowski was really more of a George Ryan era corruption guy than a Blagojevich era guy. I haven't heard much about him in ages.

Edited, Dec 9th 2008 3:49pm by Jophiel

Oh yeah, Rosty was forever ago. I didn't mean that it was part of the Blagojevich era. Gingrich and Co. used Rosty as their focal point in cleaning up Washington. I just wonder if there will be those type of political implications this time.

Edited, Dec 9th 2008 3:22pm by baelnic

Hold the god damn phone. An Illinois politician arrested on corruption charges? I'm shocked. Shocked I say. When will you sausage eating jamokes learn to arrest token blacks to keep the eyes away from the real money.

Nope. Kenya.

Considering the major criminal action was concerning the crooked appointment of Obama's vacated senate seat, it would have been hard to arrest him for something that hadn't happened yet...

You're right. We need to import a big time foreign Hollywood actor. That'll solve all of our problems.

(Except for the budget. Doh!)

As a Republican only in name, Ah-nuld fits every description of the big spending liberal that he not-so-secretly is. He is even about to enact the very legislation that booted Gray Davis from office and got him elected as a supposedly conservative populist. That political stance lasted all of about 30 seconds upon his swearing in.

Totem

Doubtful. According to Fitzgerald's report, Blagojevich was annoyed that Obama hadn't offered him anything as an incentive to sway the appointment process.

Edited, Dec 10th 2008 12:07am by Jophiel