Jury selection begins tomorrow morning in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Team Blago is ready

Blago is now tweeting updates. His website has a media page where you can sign up for email updates on the trial, and a link to the rss feed for his updates.

Blago says he and wife Patty will testify at trial.

"I never could understand these politicians who said they never did anything wrong and then when they're given the chance to say they didn't do anything wrong, where it matters in court, they don't do it. So, yes, I'm gonna do it and Patti's gonna do it. We have the truth on our side," said Blagojevich.

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The New York Times has an AP profile of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose corruption trial begins Thursday.

Some things I didn't know about his accomplishments as Governor:

He raised the minimum wage (angering some business groups), provided state-subsidized health insurance to every child in Illinois, banned discrimination of gays and lesbians, increased education spending, won approval to expand preschool and increased mammogram and cervical cancer screening for uninsured women.

He also opened a prison solely for drug offenders that stressed prevention and re-entry programs. [More...]

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens today denied former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's request for a stay of his trial. The trial is set to begin Thursday.

Blagojevich wanted a continuance until after the Supreme Court ruled in the case involving the validity of the honest services portion of the wire fraud statute.

Justice Department lawyers urged Stevens on Friday to allow the trial to proceed on schedule. They said in a 15-page filing that the judge presiding over the trial told the lawyers they were not to even mention the term "honest services" in their opening statements to the jury. They also noted the Blagojevich trial is expected to run for four months, so that the lawyers and the judge will have plenty of time to consider the Supreme Court's decisions on the constitutionality of the honest services provision.

I would have granted the delay. Jury selection, opening arguments and all-around trial strategy are impacted by the particular charges a defendant faces. If the Court tosses the law in the middle of the trial, it changes the entire complexion of the trial. The Court is ruling on the issue this term, so why not wait? Judicial economy shouldn't trump the defendant's right to a fair trial.

Thursday, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich subpoenaed President Obama. Today, Dick Durbin said he's been served with one.

Durbin had a well-publicized telephone conversation with Blagojevich shortly after the November 2008 election when politicians were starting to focus on who would get the Senate seat Obama was vacating. By all accounts, they discussed a number of candidates.

"I had one conversation with this governor and I've reported it to you and everybody else over and over again," Durbin said at the news conference. "And if he or the government wants to call me in, I'll tell the same story."And Team Blago told Fox News Harry Reid is also being called.

Why Harry Reid? Blago claims Reid pressured him not to appoint Jesse Jackson, Jr. to Obama's vacant senate seat. Nor, according to Blago, did Reid want Danny Davis or Emil Jones to get it. He feared they'd have a tough time winning re-election.[More...]

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich filed a motion (available here) to have a subpoena issued to President Obama to testify at his upcoming trial. The issue: The vacant Illinois Senate seat. From the motion:

President Barack Obama has direct knowledge of the Senate seat allegation. President Obama’s testimony is relevant to three fundamental issues of that allegation. First, President Obama contradicts the testimony of an important government witness. Second, President Obama’s testimony is relevant to the necessary element of intent of the defendant. Third, President Obama is the only one who can say if emissaries were sent on his behalf, who those emissaries were, and what, if anything, those emissaries were instructed to do on his behalf. All of these issues are relevant and necessary for the defense of Rod Blagojevich.

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Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich came out swinging yesterday in a press conference attacking U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. At a hearing today, the Judge told Blagojevich to let him be the referee. He also refused to grant Blago's brother Robert a separate trial.

The main fight is over what tapes will be played to the jury. The Government wants to play those that fit its theory of guilt. Blagojevich wants them all played. He believes if the jury hears them all, he will be found not guilty. The judge today said he'll be the one to decide which tapes come in.

Blago's lawyer explained after court today that they are upset about what the Government wrote in a footnote to a motion last week. [More...]

A federal judge today unsealed a 91 page evidentiary submission by the Government in its case against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. (Available here.)

The submission, called a "Santiago Proffer" outlines the co-conspirator statements the Government hopes to introduce against Blagojevich and his brother Robert at trial in June.

Anton Rezko is very prominent in the filing. So is Blago's alleged failed attempt to control the selection of a U.S. Senator from Illiniois.

The proffer also details what it calls unearned real estate commissions paid by Rezko to Patti Blagojevich which was used to renovate their home.

Blagojevich has released a statement in response to the filing saying there's nothing new here:

"It's the same old false allegations and lies," he said. "I'm looking forward to trial so the truth comes out and everyone will see that I am innocent."

In a nutshell, here are the players and the gist of the allegations [More...]:

Monica Conyers, wife of Rep. John Conyers, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison this week for her part in a corruption case in Detroit. Her sentencing hearing did not go smoothly, and she unsuccessfully attempted to withdraw her gulity plea (begins on page 3.)

Here's the transcript of her sentencing hearing. Here's the Government's sentencing memo and the Plea Agreement. Some background here.[More...]

A Second Superseding Indictment has been returned against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. It also affects his brother Rob Blagojevich. It adds 8 counts, but no new allegations. The conduct underlying the charges is the same. The reason for the new Indictment is added protection for the Government in case the Supreme Court invalidates the fraud by theft of "honest services" statute charged in the old Indictment. (See White Collar Crime Blog here on the Supreme Court review of the statute.)

The Government's filing statement says:

The Second Superseding Indictment is fashioned in such a way that, should the Supreme Court rule Title 18, United States Code, Section 1346 unconstitutional, the charges, or section of charges, of the Second Superseding Indictment related to Section 1346 can be easily dismissed. Such dismissal would do little to effect the trial in the instant case as the underlying illegal conduct charged in the Section 1346 counts is alleged in other counts of the Second Superseding Indictment.

The new counts include: [More...]

The Government has agreed to sever the trial of William Cellini, a co-defendant of former Ill. Governor Rod Blagojovech. The reason: After dismissing the charges against deceased Chris Kelly, who was the link between Cellini and Blago (and because Cellini's charges, while he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Blago's counts, had very little to do with either Blagojevich brother, absent the tie-in from Kelly,) the Government agreed that it was fairer to try Cellini separately. So the Government filed a motion, with which Cellini's lawyers agreed, that Cellini's trial should be severed and proceed after Blagojevich's trial. The Court approved.

Blagojevich's Chief of Staff, Robert Harris, agreed to an early plea deal, so he's gone. Last month, another co-defendant, Alonzo Monk, took a deal for 24 months in exchange for cooperating against Blagojevich (plea agreeement here.) Now that Cellini, Monk and Kelly are gone, the only two left are Rod Blagojevich and his brother Robert Blagojevich.

Former Congressman William Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years today. He was convicted of 11 counts related to public corruption.

Jefferson was found guilty after an eight-week trial of soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his congressional office as a racketeering enterprise. The case was best known for the $90,000 federal agents found hidden in the freezer of Jefferson's home in Washington, D.C.

The five charges for which he was acquitted included single count of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act -- the charge most closely related to the $90,000 found in his freezer.

Prosecutors asked for 27 years. The defense asked for less than 10. Jefferson was allowed to remain on bond pending a hearing next week on the Government's request he be ordered into custody immediately. [More...]

The death of Christopher Kelly, a top fundraiser, close friend and a co-defendant of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is looking more like a suicide.

A source familiar with the investigation told the Chicago Sun-Times that Kelly, who was married, called a woman late Friday identified as his "girlfriend" and told her that he took some pills and was going to kill himself.

The woman picked up Kelly at a lumberyard near 173rd St. and Cicero in Country Club Hills, where Kelly reportedly had vomited. Police were taking samples of the vomit and searching for evidence at the lumberyard, the source said. State Police evidence technicians were also called in to search the area near the lumberyard.

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