Blagojevich motion asks judge to admit tapes

[February 15, 2011]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is asking a judge to let him play around 100 excerpts of secret FBI recordings at his corruption retrial.

A defense motion filed Monday claims the tapes from before Blagojevich's 2008 arrest show he tried to cut a legal political deal to name Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat.

Blagojevich will face a retrial in April on 23 charges, including allegations he sought to sell or trade an appointment to Obama's seat. At his first trial, jurors deadlocked on all but one count of lying to the FBI.

The new motion contends Blagojevich's multiple references to Madigan counter government assertions that talk of a Madigan deal was merely a ruse to obscure bids by Blagojevich to profit personally.

[Associated Press]

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