“This jury shows you that the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me, they could not prove I did anything wrong — except for one nebulous charge from five years ago."
~ Rod Blagojevich, speaking outside the courtroom after the verdict.
Former Governor Rod Blagojevich has beaten the rap. A jury found Blagojevich guilty on only 1 of the 24 counts he was charged with. Say What!?!!? In case you didn’t know, the Former Governor of Illinois was on trial for wire fraud, racketeering, extortion and bribery (not necessarily all in the same order). Don’t you remember hearing him on tape talking greasy ( i.e. trying to sell/trade President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate)? But none of that matters in America. As the album title of the great African American poet Jay Z states “Reasonable Doubt.” Is Blagojevich a slick character that can’t be snagged? Nope! But as the old saying goes - every once in awhile, the sun shines on a dogs @ss. He does have instant street cred now (i.e. fake gangsta rapper credit that's only good in the projects). I don’t know what the jury was smoking but they made their decision. Blagojevich’s lawyer made me think that I could have gone to law school. Sam Adam Jr. doesn’t sound like a lawyer. He sounds like a wimpy non-alcoholic light drink. Now that the judge declared a mistrial on the 23 counts, the prosecution will attempt to retry Blagojevich. That sounds like more waste of tax payer money to me. I do wish that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would have been called to testify. Maybe a trial would have kept him busy so he wouldn’t have time to comment on New York State issues. Now that Blagojevich is done with that pesky trial he can work on his other career. Blagojevich the television star!!!
4 comments:
Apparently it was just one juror voting to acquit Blagojevich. But whatever the case is this politician any more corrupt than the others?
I think every politician should be under investigation for as long as they are in office as a matter of policy.
Val - In my opinion the trial shouldn't have lasted this long. This is a slam dunk but maybe his charming ways did work on the lady. I agree. I don't have a problem with investigations. Rangel and others shouldn't use race as a complaint for their troubles. All politicians should be under the microscope. If they haven't been doing anything wrong then they should be fine.
As a citizen of Illinois, and as someone who voted for Blago, I feel more qualified than outsiders to tell you how this whole thing went down.
Following Obama's win in 2008, the whole thing to go after Blago stunk to high heaven, it didn't make sense and it seemed stupid. At the time, they were trying to tie Obama to Rezko and somehow put Obama's name in this, and it didn't work, but the train to railroad Blago was unstoppable.
After listening night after night on local news all of these tapes, in none of the tapes was there ever note of any intent to exchange monies or any favors for the seat. In essence, there wasn't even a smoking gun that the prosecution could point at Blago. What he was guilty of, at best, was an INTENT to sell Obama's seat, and based on what was reported to the public, that was a weak case in and of itself. There were no long list of bank statements that matched up racketeering charges even remotely.
The fact that a DA's office with upwards of 90% conviction rate was unable to make this case a slam dunk proves to me that there wasn't a case in the first place.
And yes, Sam Adam, Jr. seems completely unprofessional, but hell, he got R. Kelley off--clearly he was the right person for the job.
Somebody probably got paid.
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