Rod Blagojevich a staunch Obama and Rahm Emanuel ally tried to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat in 2009. This sentencing comes on the heals of another Obama corrupt pal Tony Rezko getting sent to the slammer for ten a half years. Hopefully Obama is next.

Count 1-Wire fraud related to Children’s Memorial Hospital-GUILTY
Count 2-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 3-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 4-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 5-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 6-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 7-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 8-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 9-Wire fraud related to the Racing Bill-GUILTY
Count 10-Wire fraud related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 11-Attempted extortion related to School Shakedown-NO VERDICT
Count 12-Attempted extortion related to Children’s Memorial Hospital-GUILTY
Count 13-Bribery related to Children’s Memorial Hospital-GUILTY
Count 14-Extortion conspiracy related to Racing Bill-GUILTY
Count 15-Bibery conspiracy related to Racing Bill-GUILTY
Count 16-Attempted Extortion related to Tollway Shakedown-NO VERDICT
Count 17-Bibery related to Tollway Shakedown-NOT GUILTY
Count 18-Extortion conspiracy related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 19-Attempted extortion related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY
Count 20-Bribery conspiracy related to the Senate Seat-GUILTY

As is typical for NBC, they make no reference to the fact that Rod Blagojevich is a Democrat. Expect other media hack organizations to pull the same thing. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Reuters called him a Republican like they did Weiner.

]

Prosecution and defense lawyers took a few minutes to mull over Zagel’s proposed response to jurors and made one minor change. Shortly before noon, Zagel said the jury was at lunch but would receive the agreed upon response when they returned.

It will read: “You should deliberate on wire fraud counts to the extent necessary to enable you to decide on those counts. We recognize that your stated inability to reach agreement on other counts may establish to your satisfaction that you will be similarly unable to reach unanimity on the wire fraud counts. Nonetheless, a deliberative decision on those counts should be made even if it is a decision that you can’t reach agreement.”

ccording to Zagel instructed the jury to continue to review those counts.U.S. District Judge announced in court today.

The jury returned to their discussions after breaking for lunch, then went home for the day later in the afternoon with no further communication. Court officials said the jury isn’t scheduled to resume deliberations until Monday.

“What is the next logical step?” the jury asked in its note.

Zagel said in court that he needs further clarification from the jury before deciding the next step.

“It is also permissible for a jury to return a verdict with unanimity on some counts and have an inability to reach a unanimous decision on other counts,” Zagel said he would tell the jury.

But the bombshell revelation at the trial is summed up in this quotation from the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Testimony elicited by the government from John Harris and wiretaps played in court raise the issue of President Obama’s direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding the appointment to his Senate seat,” lawyers wrote in the filing.”

These revelations have led to an attempt on the part of lawyers for Blagojevich to obtain summaries of various interviews the FBI conducted with Obama.

Stating that there would be no way to mount an effective defense of Blago without the summary of the FBI-Obama interviews, lawyers for Blago are seeking the summaries to show that Obama had direct knowledge of the illegal trade-off.

In addition, secret FBI surveillance tapes indicate that a Washington consultant, Fred Yang, told Blago that Obama wanted to get the Governor a high-paying job at the federal level, even if he could not get a Cabinet appointment.  This, according to Yang, would not involve Senate approval.

As the corruption case against Blago continues to unfold, it is becoming clear that eventually Obama himself will be pulled into the sordid affair.

According to passages in the papers filed Thursday by Blagojevich’s lawyers — which were blacked out under a judge’s order but made visible by a computer glitch — Obama, then president-elect, spoke directly to the disgraced governor on Dec. 1, 2008.

But just one week later — on the day Blagojevich was indicted — Obama told reporters flatly, “I had no contact with the govern

Most of the non-blacked out portions of the motion are predictably tame general knowledge: the seat in dispute belonged to the President; the FBI did speak with the President about this case at some point in time. A “labor union official” close to the President (who may be SEIU President Andy Stern) is said to contradict public statements on the case by Obama directly. The credibility of money man Tony Rezko being crucial to the case, the defense would like the President to testify about it. The defense also spends significant amount of time bringing up previous cases of sitting presidents being subpoenaed to testify in relevant cases.

Here is a link to the actual PDF, via BreakingNews, for your perusal, and a helpful who’s who of Senate candidates. What follows are all the major blocks of blacked-out text in the motion, with some commentary. Some of the allegations make a very close link between the president and the governor; others seem a little to benign to have been given the “confidential” treatment. One wonders if all classified portions of government documents are this easy to breach, or whether whoever put the document together was hoping a reporter somewhere would crack the code. :

Yet, despite President Obama stating that no representatives of his had any part of any deals, labor union president [possibly Andy Stern, though not confirmed] told the FBI and the United States Attorneys that he spoke to labor union official on November 3, 2008 who received a phone message from Obama that evening. After labor union official listened to the message labor union official told labor union president “I’m the one”. Labor union president took that to mean that labor union official was to be the one to deliver the message on behalf of Obama that Senate Candidate B was his pick. (Labor union president 302, February 2, 2009, p. 7).

Not a particularly damning conversation, but possible evidence that the President was very intimately involved in negotiations over that seat– which directly contradicts public statements by the President. Imagine what certain people on the right will say about Obama negotiating so closely with both Blagojevich and Chicago union officials.

“I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived,” Blagojevich said. “I saw it all growing up.”

Blagojevich, referring to the president as “this guy,” says Obama was elected based simply on hope.

“What the (expletive)? Everything he’s saying’s on the teleprompter,” Blagojevich told the magazine for a story in its February issue, which hits newsstands Jan. 19.

No comment from the White House yet.

Winners in the Madoff/Ponzi sweepstakes included Hillary Rodham (”It’s-Been-an-Interesting-Marriage”) Clinton, now Obama’s Secretary of State; Senator Charles (”The-People-Just-Don’t-Care-About-Earmarks”) Schumer (D.N.Y); Congressman Charles (”Whattaya-Mean-I-Gotta-Pay-My-Fair-Share-of-Taxes?”) Rangel (D.N.Y.); and Congressman David (”Don’t-Ask-Me-About-Earmarks”) Obey (D.WI.), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and co-author of the original, cosmetically-enhanced porker ultimately enacted as the “stimulus bill.”  These Democrats received, at one time or another, thousands of dollars from Madoff.

Moreover, Democrat senatorial candidates in general – including one particular then-serving junior senator from Illinois - received indirect benefits from the over $100,000.00 in political contributions Madoff or his controlled entities made between 1998 and 2008 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

And this from Opensecret’s.org:

In total, he and his wife, Ruth, have given $238,200 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1991, with Democrats getting 88 percent of that. Overall, Madoff and other individuals at his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, gave $372,100 in campaign contributions since 1991, with 89 percent to Democrats. The firm spent $590,000 on lobbying in the last 11 years, all but $10,000 of it with the lobbying firm of Lent, Scrivner & Roth. A search for funds with “Madoff” in their title in lawmakers’ personal investments did not find any members of Congress with their own funds invested with him.

Coburn’s staff has compiled the following case against the FutureGen earmark:

• $2 Billion FutureGen Earmark Violates President Obama’s Demand for an “Earmark-Free” Stimulus Bill
• The $2 Billion Earmark for FutureGen Is the Most Expensive Congressional Pork Project in History
• Department of Energy Says “FutureGen a Waste of Tax Money”
• Independent Experts and Opinion Leaders Agree that FutureGen Is Not the Best Technology
• Funding for FutureGen in this bill is a Result of Successful Lobbying rather than Its Potential for Job Creation or Energy Production
• Energy Producers Who Are Enjoying Record Profits Do Not Need Government Subsidies, Especially at a Time When Other Struggling Industries Are Laying Off Employees
• Carbon Capture Technology Is Not “Shovel Ready,” which is the Stated Criteria for Stimulus Funding
• Earmarking Funding for Unproven Technology, for FutureGen or Any Other Company, Siphons Away Funding that Could be Better Directed to More Worthwhile Causes That Benefit Taxpayers
• $2 Billion Earmark for FutureGen Is the Most Expensive Pork Project in History
• It is 2,000 times more expensive than the $1 million Woodstock museum in New York that was rejected by the Senate.
• It is nine times costlier than the infamous Alaska “Bridge to Nowhere,” which was priced at $223 million in 2005.[3]
• The $1.5 billion earmarked by Congress to the Washington, D.C. Metro system last year had been the most expensive pork project, until now.
• President Obama asked Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill free of Congressional pet projects.  Senate leaders claim there are no earmarks in the stimulus bill. Yet hidden in the text of a bill is very clever language intended to disguise its nature is the largest earmark in history– $2 billion for FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a company based in Matoon, Illinois.
• The text of the bill reads “$2,000,000,000 is available for one or more near zero emission powerplant(s).” Yet, there is only one “near zero emissions” powerplant anywhere near development in the entire nation—the FutureGen power plant. In fact, FutureGen boasts being a “first-of-its-kind” power plant in development.[1] The truth is it could rightly be called an “only-of-its-kind” power plant under development.

And you wonder how we ended up with a tax cheat for Treasury Secretary, a know-nothing for director of intelligence, and a Bozo to police federal “recovery” funds.

It’s the Chicago way. Via the Sun-Times:

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Blagojevich’s administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state’s housing authority Sept. 10 — about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II’s employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.

Burris II’s hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris’ interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Blagojevich appointed Burris to that seat in late December after Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell the vacancy to the highest bidder.

Sen. Burris, 71, is fending off calls for his resignation and is the subject of a Senate ethics probe and a perjury investigation by the top prosecutor in Downstate Sangamon County. Those probes stem from conflicting testimony Sen. Burris provided to the House panel that drafted impeachment charges against Blagojevich, who was removed from office Jan. 29.

Separately, federal authorities have been investigating hiring decisions by Blagojevich’s administration. Authorities, however, have not expressed any interest in Burris II, Housing Development Authority spokeswoman Rebecca Boykin said.

“Roland Burris II was hired by the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Legal Department based on his qualifications in response to a published job posting,” Boykin stated. “As an employer, it is not IHDA’s practice to request financial information from applicants.”

Sen. Burris’ office, Burris II and Sen. Burris’ lawyer, Timothy Wright III, did not return telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment. Blagojevich’s publicist also did not respond to questions about Burris II’s hiring.

Burris II, 42, once worked at the same law firm as his father: Burris, Wright, Slaughter & Tom. That firm merged with another in the fall.

Burris II had resolved two federal tax liens in 2005 before being hit with the $34,163 lien in July. That lien against his property seeks unpaid taxes for 2004, 2005 and 2007.

A month after the IRS filed the lien, Burris II’s lender filed its foreclosure suit. Since Burris II and his wife got the $372,000 mortgage on July 18, 2006, they’ve paid less than $3,000 on it, the suit alleges. The balance due is $406,685, including interest and penalties.

Bottom line:

Refinancing for Up to 4 to 5 Million Responsible Homeowners to Make Their Mortgages More Affordable

A $75 Billion Homeowner Stability Initiative to Reach Up to 3 to 4 Million At-Risk Homeowners

Supporting Low Mortgage Rates By Strengthening Confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

In addition, there will be forced mortgage modifications (bad idea when GOP pitched it, bad idea now) and unprecedented new meddling in private loan contracts, including a $10 billion “insurance fund,” $100 billion more for Freddie and Fannie (rewarding failures again), and a provision to “Allow Judicial Modifications of Home Mortgages During Bankruptcy for
Borrowers Who Have Run Out of Options” (pushed by Dodd and the Dems for more than a year now).

More details:

“Pay for Success” Incentives to Servicers: Servicers will receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for each eligible modification meeting guidelines established under this initiative. They will also receive “pay for success” fees – awarded monthly as long as the borrower stays current on the loan – of up to $1,000 each year for three years.

Incentives to Help Borrowers Stay Current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.


Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.

Home Price Decline Reserve Payments: To encourage lenders to modify more mortgages and enable more families to keep their homes, the Administration — together with the FDIC — has developed an innovative partial guarantee initiative. The insurance fund – to be created by the Treasury Department at a size of up to $10 billion – will be designed to discourage lenders from opting to foreclose on mortgages that could be viable now out of fear that home prices will fall even further later on. Holders of mortgages modified under the program would be provided with an additional insurance payment on each modified loan, linked to declines in the home price index.

Roland Burris says the reason that he never mentioned the demand for $10,000 from Rod Blagojevich’s brother Robert to the Illinois legislature is because they never asked him about it.  Mark Brown at the Chicago Sun-Times begs to differ, and he has the transcript to prove it.  In his testimony, Burris had plenty of opportunity to spill the beans — and instead chose to remain silent.

Here are all the questions asked which should have prompted Burris to reveal the demand (emphases mine):

Rep. Jim Durkin: “Did you talk to any members of the governor’s staff or anyone closely related to the governor, including family members or any lobbyists connected with him, including, let me throw out some names — John Harris, Rob Blagojevich, Doug Scofield, Bob Greenleaf, Lon Monk, John Wyma? Did you talk to anybody . . . associated with the governor about your desire to seek the appointment prior to the governor’s arrest?”

Durkin: “I guess the point is I was trying to ask: Did you speak to anybody who was on the governor’s staff prior to the governor’s arrest or anybody, any of those individuals or anybody who is closely related to the governor?”

Rep. Jill Tracy: “You said that you had visited friends perhaps in September of ‘08 or July of ‘08 concerning a desire to perhaps be appointed as a senator if our president-elect was elected. And could you give me the names of those friends?”

Tracy: “But I think I earlier heard you today testify that in September ‘08 or perhaps as early as July ‘08, you had visited with some friends about your desire to seek the seat.”

Tracy: “And I just was wondering who those friends were.”

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the committee chairman: “Is that when you talked about your interest with Lon Monk? I think that –”

Tracy: “Was it Lon Monk, was that the extent of it was Lon Monk?

Tracy: “So you don’t recall that there was anybody else besides Lon Monk that you expressed an interest to at that point?”

Tracy: “Is there anybody that comes to mind in that light that you can –”

Read Brown’s column for Burris’ responses.  Not only did the panel give Burris at least nine oppportunities to name Robert Blagojevich and his $10K demand, Durkin specifically asked Burris about the impeached governor’s brother.  Burris never acknowleged it, nor did he reveal the contact, even though it went directly to the heart of the pay-for-play scandal.  If that’s not perjury, it’s at least obstruction of justice.

Now Illinois Democrats wonder whether they should give Burris the heave-ho:

Several Democratic lawmakers from Illinois said Monday that they were troubled by revelations about Roland W. Burris, the state’s newest senator and a fellow Democrat. And at least one called for Mr. Burris to come before the state legislature and explain himself.

“We all have a lot of questions,” State Representative Jack D. Franks said. “He wasn’t forthcoming, and that’s the bottom line. I feel betrayed. The real problem here is the question of trust for the citizens of Illinois. We were supposed to rise to the occasion and, again, Illinois becomes the laughingstock for the nation.”

Tommy Christopher notes that even Keith Olbermann threw Burris under the bus last night with the revelation about being explicitly asked about Robert Blagojevich at the hearing.  Will Harry Reid take the hint?

Burris’ evolving explanation of what happened took another twist when he said federal investigators want to talk about his appointment to the Senate seat that Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell.

“What I understand is some of the agents have reached out to my lawyers,” Burris said, adding “they want to meet with me.”

Burris attorney Timothy Wright acknowledged Burris may be on a covert recording in the Blagojevich investigation but declined to explain the senator’s comment about meeting with federal agents, saying “the FBI has not come to us and they’re not asking us for anything.”

Burris, a former attorney general, alternately looked nervous and feisty at a hastily arranged news conference in Chicago just a day before he was to embark on a statewide listening tour to meet the constituents he has represented for about a month. At times, Burris and his lawyer gave contradictory answers or no answers when pressed on whether he told the whole truth about his role.

Whoops!  Blago insisted that Burris was clean, although Illinois had little choice but to certify him in any case.  Now Burris may have starred in one or more of the conversations the feds have on tape, which means that the little pas de deux Burris played with the legislature makes it more interesting.  If Burris lied under oath, then the taped conversations could prove it.

Burris gets appointed to the Senate by Rod Blagojevich, a self-made cartoon of political ineptness and alleged corruption. The U.S. Senate won’t seat Burris until he testifies under oath that he is unblemished by the Blagojevich stain. Burris does this–under oath–knowing that any disclosure of contacts with the Blagojovich camp could jeopardize the Senate acceptance of his nomination. He submits a sworn affidavit saying “there was not any contact between myself or any of my representatives with Governor Blagojevich or any of his representatives” about the Senate seat before he was offered the job. A few days later, he testifies under oath that he did, after all, talk about the job previously with “some friends about his desire to be appointed.” He is asked specifically about conversations with Blagojevich aides and associates Doug Scofield, Bob Greenleaf, Lon Monk, John Wyma and John Harris. He says he spoke with Lon Monk, a state lobbyist with ties to Blagojevich. Based on this information, he is accepted into the U.S. Senate.

Last Friday, the Burris story changes again–big time. (To see the new affidavit, click here.) His new story, includes these salient details: As far back as June, at a fundraiser Burris attended for Blagojevich, Burris told two of the governor’s aides, Wyma and Scofield, that he was “interested” in the Senate job. He also talked to Blagojevich’s brother about the post, not once but three times in October and November, and Burris, as part of the same conversations, discussed raising money for Blagojevich with the brother. (Burris claims he declined, saying it would look bad.) In October he called Blagojevich’s chief of staff, John Harris, in an attempt to get his own nephew a state job, and then asked about the Senate appointment. He also called Ed Smith, a “friend and supporter” of Blagojevich’s, to ask if he had a chance of getting the Senate job.

Burris, still under oath in a sworn affidavit, now says that he did not bring these facts up during the January testimony because he was “asked another question,” and did not have a chance to more fully explain himself. At best, this makes Burris a political fool, because he knowingly allowed his new Senate colleagues to be played for fools by denying them all the information they sought. Uncovering these facts, after all, was the entire purpose of his testimony, and he knew that. Did he think he could get by without bringing them up? Did he not feel the responsibility to clear the air, if not at the hearing, then immediately following the hearing? Did he think no one would notice, or that the information would not eventually come out?

Full transcript of original testimony here.

***

5:00pm Eastern update. The press just laughed at Burris for trying to defend his incomplete answer in his original affidavit.

REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: Did you talk to any members of the Governor’s staff or anyone closely related to the Governor, including family members or any lobbyists connected with him, including let me throw out some names, John Harris, Rob Blagojevich, Doug Scofield, Bob Greenleaf, Lon Monk, John Wyma, did you talk to anybody who was associated with the Governor about your desire to seek the appointment prior to the Governor’s arrest?

MR. WRIGHT: Give us a moment.

MR. BURRIS: I talked to some friends about my desire to be appointed, yes.

REPRESENTATIVE DURKIN: I guess the point is I was trying to ask, did you speak to anybody who was
on the Governor’s staff prior to the Governor’s arrest or anybody, any of those individuals or anybody who is closely related to the Governor?

MR. BURRIS: I recall having a meeting with Lon Monk about my partner and I trying to get continued business, and I did bring it up, it must have been in September or maybe it was in July of ‘08 that, you know, you’re close to the Governor, let him know that I am certainly interested in the seat.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post — something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

Burris acknowledges being hit up for the money in a new affidavit he has sent to the head of the House committee that recommended Blagojevich be removed from office.

The affidavit is dated Feb. 5 — three weeks after Burris was sworn in to replace President Obama in the Senate.

Burris — who did not give money to the Blagojevich campaign fund in response to the previously undisclosed solicitation — provided a copy of the sworn statement to the Chicago Sun-Times Friday in response to questions about his contacts with the Blagojevich camp about fund-raising.

However, thats not all for the Blagos. If the Blagojeviches thought that impeachment might slake the thirst of federal investigators, they were sorely mistaken. The Chicago Tribune reports that feds dropped subpoenas on Patti Blagojevich’s former employer, which unceremoniously dumped her as soon as her husband joined the ranks of the unemployed. Investigators appear interested in what Patti did for the Chicago Christian Industrial League, and it looks like … not much:

Sneed hears the feds delivered a subpoena to the Chicago Christian Industrial League Wednesday, which once employed former first lady Patti Blagojevich as its development director.

The upshot: Sneed is told the feds requested the files pertaining to Mrs. Blagojevich’s employment, which included any of her development deals.

The backshot: The former first lady was hired last September at a $100,000-a-year salary to lure new donors to the league, which provides transitional housing and job training for the homeless. The state-of-the-art shelter facility was where Mrs. Blagojevich worked until mid-January, when she was abruptly dismissed from her job. Since then, she has filed suit claiming the league violated her contract.

Just days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich accepted his party’s nod for re-election in 2006, a letter arrived at state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s office seeking thousands of pages of documents Blagojevich could use as ammunition against her in their upcoming campaign.

The letter was signed by Roland Burris.

It was one of several requests Burris made to the treasurer’s office in 2006, a campaign practice known as opposition research in which candidates use public documents to question their opponents’ records.

Burris’ assistance for his fellow Democrat would typically draw little notice. But it comes to light as he is seeking to project his political independence from the scandal-plagued governor who appointed him to the U.S. Senate on Dec. 31.