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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 defense 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. The
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."
Blagojevich becomes the second straight Illinois governor
convicted of corruption. His predecessor, George Ryan, is now
serving 6 1/2 years in federal prison.
Judge James Zagel has ruled that Blagojevich will be barred from
traveling 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 Patrick Fitzgerald said before a bank of television cameras
after the arrest.
Blagojevich, who was also accused of shaking down businessmen for
campaign contributions, was swiftly impeached and removed from
office.
The verdict provided affirmation to Fitzgerald, one of the
nation's most prominent prosecutors, who had condemned Blagojevich's
dealings as a "political crime spree." Mentioned at times as a
possible future FBI director, Fitzgerald pledged to retry the
governor after 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 17 of 20 counts after deliberating nine days. He also
faces up to five additional years in prison for his previous
conviction of lying to the FBI.
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 Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."
To most Illinois residents, he was a reminder of the corruption
that has plagued the state for decades.
For the second trial, prosecutors streamlined their case, and
attorneys for the former governor put on a defense -- highlighted by
a chatty Blagojevich taking the witness stand for seven days to
portray himself as a big talker but not a criminal.
Testifying was a gamble for the former congressman, who had
promised to take the stand in his first trial but failed to do so
after his attorneys rested their case without calling a single
witness.
Prosecutors dropped Blagojevich's brother as a defendant and cut
down on the number of charges against the ousted governor. They
summoned about half as many witnesses, asked fewer questions and
barely touched on topics not directly related to the charges, such
as Blagojevich's lavish shopping or his erratic working habits.
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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 endeavored 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.
He clearly sought to solicit sympathy. He spoke about his
working-class parents and choked up recounting the day he met his
wife, the daughter of a powerful Chicago alderman. He reflected on
his feelings of inferiority at college where other students wore
preppy "alligator" shirts. Touching on his political life, he
portrayed himself as a friend of working people, the poor and
elderly.
He told jurors his talk on the wiretaps merely displayed his
approach to decision-making: to invite a whirlwind of ideas -- "good
ones, bad ones, stupid ones" -- then toss the ill-conceived ones
out. To demonstrate the absurdities such brainstorming could
generate, he said he once considered appointing himself to the
Senate seat so he could travel to Afghanistan and help hunt down
Osama bin Laden.
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.
Lead prosecutor Reid Schar started his questioning of Blagojevich
with a quick verbal punch: "Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted
liar, correct?"
"Yes," Blagojevich eventually answered after the judge overruled
a flurry of defense objections.
The proof, prosecutors said, was there on the FBI tapes played
for jurors. That included his infamous rant: "I've got this thing
and it's f---ing golden, and I'm just not giving it up for f---ing
nothing. I'm not gonna do it."
Prosecutors may also have been helped by testimony from Rep.
Jesse Jackson Jr., who was called to testify by the defense but
whose testimony backfired. During cross-examination, he told jurors
that Blagojevich did not appoint Jackson's wife to head the Illinois
Lottery in part because Jackson hadn't given the governor a $25,000
campaign donation.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Carrie Hamilton likened
Blagojevich as Illinois' chief executive to a corrupt traffic cop
tapping on car windows and pressing drivers for a bribe to tear up a
speeding ticket.
[Associated Press;
By MICHAEL TARM]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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