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Blagojevich will
now appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, his lawyer and his wife,
Patti, said in a joint statement.
Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year sentence for attempted
extortion from campaign contributers, wire fraud and other
crimes, had asked for a rehearing in front of the full 7th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
On July 21, a three-judge panel of the court vacated five of his
18 criminal convictions. The full court has 11 active judges.
The court denied the petition in a three-sentence order that
said all of the judges on the three-judge panel had voted to
deny a rehearing.
"We believe the decision is flawed and puts every public
official, who must raise campaign funds to stay in office and to
be effective, at the mercy of an ambitious or
politically-motivated federal prosecutor," Blagojevich attorney
Leonard Goodman said in the statement. "Now we will appeal to
the U.S. Supreme Court."
Blagojevich, a Democrat, was arrested in December 2008 when he
was still governor. He was impeached by the state's General
Assembly in early 2009, becoming the first Illinois governor to
be removed from office. He began serving his federal prison
sentence in 2012.
In the July ruling, the 7th Circuit Court said there was
overwhelming evidence against Blagojevich, who attempted in 2008
to make money from his power to appoint a replacement for Barack
Obama, who was leaving his seat in the U.S. Senate after winning
the presidential election.
The court did ask for a retrial on five counts, however, after
determining there was a problem with instructions to the jury on
those counts.
(Editing by Alan Crosby and Eric Beech)
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