Friday, June 10, 2011
 
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Blagojevich trial goes to jury

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[June 10, 2011]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Rod Blagojevich's fate is once again in the hands of jurors, after a day of shouting, fist thumping and even some tears during final arguments at the ousted Illinois governor's corruption retrial.

Jurors heard the prosecution describe Blagojevich as an audacious schemer who lied to their faces on the witness stand. The defense countered that the government only showed that Blagojevich talks a lot.

"He didn't get a dime, a nickel, a penny ... nothing," defense attorney Aaron Goldstein shouted just feet from the jury box. Turning to point at Blagojevich, Goldstein added that the trial "isn't about anything but nothing."

At one point during Goldstein's more than two-hour closing, Blagojevich's wife, Patti, began to sob on a courtroom bench, wiping tears from her cheek.

Pacing the crowded courtroom and sometimes pounding his fist on a lectern, Goldstein echoed what Blagojevich said during seven days on the stand -- that his conversations captured on FBI wiretap recordings were mere brainstorming.

"You heard a man thinking out loud, on and on and on," he said. "He likes to talk, and he does talk, and that's him. And that's all you heard."

"They want you to believe his talk is a crime -- it's not," Goldstein added, casting a look at three prosecutors sitting nearby.

Lead prosecutor Reid Schar balked at that argument, telling jurors in his rebuttal -- the last word to jurors -- that Blagojevich went way beyond talk.

"He made decisions over and over, and took actions over and over," he said.

He also mocked Blagojevich for testifying that he didn't mean his apparent comments on wiretaps about pressuring businessmen for cash or other favors.

"There's one person, this guy," Schar said, indicating Blagojevich, "whose words don't mean what they mean."

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Blagojevich, 54, is accused of seeking to sell or trade President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat and trying to shake down executives by threatening state decisions that would hurt their businesses.

Blagojevich did not take the stand in his first trial last year, which ended with a hung jury. That panel agreed on just a single count -- that he lied to the FBI about how involved he was in fundraising as governor.

Goldstein also took issue with prosecutors likening Blagojevich to a corrupt traffic cop tapping on drivers' windows to demand bribes to rip up speeding tickets.

"The hypothetical makes no sense," he said. A police officer can't ever ask for cash, but "a politician has a right to ask for campaign contributions."

Goldstein applauded Blagojevich for testifying, saying "it took courage to walk up there" to the witness stand.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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