NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: B-Rod’s Blabbermouth
As his cronies got indicted and convicted one by one, IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) knew it was only a matter of time before U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald would be at his doorstep, but it apparently didn’t deter him from hatching all sorts of illegal influence peddling schemes on office and home phones that he should have assumed were tapped, reports The Washington Post:
"You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody's listening. The whole world's listening," Blagojevich said in a conversation secretly taped by the FBI. "I would do it in person," he said to someone else. "I would not do it on the phone."
Yet the governor kept talking on the telephone, and the FBI kept listening. In hours of captured conversations, he continued to spin out one outlandish idea after another, all of them designed to line his pockets or preserve his political career, and all of them illegal, the criminal complaint against him alleges.
The Associated Press explores the issue of whether the tapes are enough to convict Blago:
Former prosecutors and defense attorneys surveyed Wednesday say the recordings are powerful evidence that can go a long way toward landing a conviction and sending the governor to prison. …
"You're going to hear Gov. Blagojevich's own words and they are going to be used against him in court," said New York attorney William Devaney, a former federal prosecutor. "That is extremely powerful evidence."
But talk is cheap, say others:
[S]ome legal experts say prosecutors may have a tough time overcoming the fact that Blagojevich never actually sold the Senate seat.
"The weakness in the government's case seems to be that Blagojevich schemed to do things but didn't actually do them," Chicago defense attorney John Beal said. …
Chicago attorney Patrick M. Collins, who as an assistant U.S. attorney successfully sent former Gov. George M. Ryan to federal prison for corruption, said the government's case has been greatly strengthened by the recordings.
But he said defense attorneys are likely to argue that "this is all talk, what were the actions?" He said the government will need to present witnesses to show that Blagojevich went beyond mere talk.
"Attempts are not as attractive to a jury as completed actions," he said.
Blagojevich is charged with conspiracy and solicitation to commit bribery, and could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison on the first and 10 years on the second.
Editorial Note: In case you’re wondering, yes it’s that Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
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