A jury has convicted Rod Blagojevich of trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and other corruption charges. Jurors delivered their verdicts Monday after deliberating nine days. Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including that he sought to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat and schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story
A jury has convicted Rod Blagojevich of trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and other corruption charges.
Jurors delivered their verdicts Monday after deliberating nine days.
Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including that he sought to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat and schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations.
Blagojevich testified for seven days, denying wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he lied and the proof was on FBI wiretaps. Those included a widely parodied clip in which Blagojevich calls the Senate opportunity “f—— golden.”
Jurors in his first trial deadlocked on all but one charge, convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI. Prosecutors opted to try him again.
Blagojevich already faces up to five years for the lying conviction.
More than two years after his arrest while still in office, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will hear the verdict in his corruption retrial Monday, after jurors informed the judge that they had reached agreement on 18 of the 20 counts against him.
Judge James Zagel said the verdicts will be read Monday afternoon. The jury had returned to the federal courthouse Monday morning after nine days of deliberations. They had been talking through the evidence over a three-week period.
Blagojevich arrived at the courthouse accompanied by his wife, Patti, and walked past the crowds that lined the street outside the building.
The former governor, 54, faces allegations that he sought to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat in exchange for a high-paying job, and schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. He took the stand at the retrial and denied all the charges.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys and dozens of reporters filed into the courtroom Monday after the court announced it had received word of a note from jurors.
“The jury has come to a decision on 18 of the 20 counts,” Zagel said, clutching the note and reading it aloud. Jurors added they were deadlocked on two counts and “were confident” they couldn’t agree on those charges “even with further deliberations.”
The note didn’t say which charges they agreed on or disagreed on.
Asked how he should respond, both prosecutors and the defense indicated to Zagel that the jury had deliberated long enough and should be asked to deliver the verdicts.
It was only the third note from jurors in their deliberations. The two other gave no hint about how deliberations were proceeding.
Jurors at Blagojevich’s first trial last year came back deadlocked after deliberating for 14 days. They agreed on just one of 24 counts, convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI. He faces up to five years on that conviction.
If found guilty on all the counts this time, he faces up to 350 years in prison – though guidelines would dictate he get far less.
Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008, after the FBI had wiretapped hundreds of his telephone calls at work and home. The Illinois Legislature impeached him a month later.
HP
