corruption

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Blago Names Burris; Senate Dems Say 'No Way'

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich announced today that former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris will fill Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, the Chicago Tribune reports. Blagojevich said Burris was a man of "unquestioned integrity" and asked that people not allow "the allegations against me to taint this good and honest...

The Bra Wire That Brought Down Blago
 The Bra Wire 
 That Brought 
 Down Blago 
GLOSSIES
Dec 29, 2008 1:25 PM CST

The Bra Wire That Brought Down Blago

Ill. corruption probe started with hospital administrator

(Newser) - The FBI corruption investigation that ended with the Illinois governor started in the bra of a surburban Chicago hospital exec, Nina Burleigh writes in the New Yorker. In 2003, Pamela Davis was trying to get a new building approved when she was told to use a certain contractor or kiss...

Blago: 'I'm on the Wrong Planet'
 Blago: 'I'm on the
Wrong Planet' 
Dec 27, 2008 10:52 AM CST

Blago: 'I'm on the Wrong Planet'

'His people' meaning 'crooks'?

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich said yesterday that if what he's done is an impeachable offense, he's living on the "wrong planet." Speaking to a reporter outside a Chicago law office, the governor said he was hired to fight for the people of Illinois, and that's what he was doing in...

Blago Wants Obama Aides to Testify in Impeachment

Attorney asks state panel subpoena Emanuel, Jarrett

(Newser) - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorney wants the state’s impeachment panel to subpoena two of Barack Obama’s top aides, Politico reports. Ed Genson is not alleging that Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett did anything wrong, but rather that their testimony would help prove that Blagojevich’s taped conversations...

Obama Report: No Ties to Blago Scandal

Emanuel was in touch, but nobody knew Illinois governor was trying to sell Senate seat

(Newser) - Barack Obama's camp pronounced itself clean as a whistle today with regard to the Rod Blagojevich scandal, NBC reports. The president-elect’s team released an internal report saying that no one on the staff, including Obama himself, had any inappropriate contact with the Illinois governor as he considered appointments to...

Obama Camp to Clear Air on Blago Contacts

Report will see light after delay requested by federal prosecutor

(Newser) - President-elect Obama plans to reveal tomorrow his staff's conversations with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "We have a report," said a rep. "It's been ready for release for a week. We've held off at the request of the US Attorney's office and that continues to be the case,...

'Individual D' Wants Immunity for Blago Help

Political fundraiser, Jackson pal Nayak offers cooperation

(Newser) - A prominent figure in the federal probe of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants immunity in the case in exchange for his cooperation, the Los Angeles Times reports. Chicago-area businessman Raghuveer Nayak, known as “Individual D,” was squeezed by the governor for campaign cash in return for naming Rep....

Sans Stevens, Lobbyists Down a Sugar Daddy

Hard times fall on careers that hinged on access to Ted

(Newser) - Some Alaskans make a living off of oil piped from the Arctic. Others, for years, have made it off of federal money, piped from DC by former Sen. Ted Stevens. But with Uncle Ted's downfall, lobbyists who traded on their access to him face disaster, the New York Times reports....

Blagojevich Can't Not Look Guilty
Blagojevich Can't Not
Look Guilty 
OPINION
Dec 21, 2008 8:19 PM CST

Blagojevich Can't Not Look Guilty

Illinois guv's hair and clothes all point to one thing: crime

(Newser) - When it comes to Rod Blagojevich, it’s a little too easy to judge a book by its cover, writes the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan. When he wears black business suits, “he evokes the image of a goodfella engaged in ‘waste management.’” And when he...

Cold Fish Blago Made Few Allies in Home State

Disgraced governor's failure to return phone calls contributes to current isolation

(Newser) - Rod Blagejovich made little effort to forge bonds with Illinois lawmakers, and that cold shoulder is helping them go untainted by his scandal, Politico reports. "It makes it plausible for people to say, ‘I really didn’t have much contact with him,’” one analyst said. Still,...

Obama Has Nothing to Hide, Plenty to Lose With Blago

Reflexively distancing himself from Illinois mess has made him look needlessly sketchy

(Newser) - Barack Obama looks to have done nothing wrong in his (however limited) dealings with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but the president-elect seemed bent on proving otherwise, Joe Conason writes on Salon. Obama’s “unnecessary mistakes” in handling the scandal “risked creating public suspicion where there need be none,...

Blago: I Won't Step Down
 Blago: I Won't 
 Step Down 
UPDATED
Dec 19, 2008 2:26 PM CST

Blago: I Won't Step Down

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich proclaimed his innocence at a jam-packed press conference this afternoon, vowing to "fight until I take my last breath," the Chicago Tribune reports. "I'm not going to quit a job that people hired me to do because of false accusations and a political lynch mob,...

Swedes Launch Nobel Prize Bribery Probe

Drug firm accused of influencing this year's pick in medicine

(Newser) - Swedish prosecutors are investigating claims of corruption in the awarding of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine, the Toronto Star reports. German scientist Harald zur Hausen won part of the prize for discovering the link between human papilloma viruses and cervical cancer. The discovery could make a fortune for drug...

Blagojevich Lawyer: Feds' Wiretaps 'Illegally Obtained'

Ill. AG says state won't pay for governor's impeachment defense

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer said today federal wiretaps of the Illinois governor’s phones had been “illegally obtained,” and should be excluded from his impeachment proceedings, the AP reports. Furthermore, Ed Genson told the panel of state lawmakers considering the action, the criminal case against Blagojevich shouldn’t...

Feds to Freeze Blago Campaign Funds
Feds to Freeze Blago Campaign Funds
Dec 18, 2008 2:34 AM CST

Feds to Freeze Blago Campaign Funds

Move would block governor from using campaign war chest to pay legal bills

(Newser) - Federal authorities have informed embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich they intend to freeze the money in his campaign fund, preventing him from using the resources to pay his legal bills, sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times. The Friends of Blagojevich fund reported having $3.6 million when officials last filed a...

Blago Says He Won't Appoint Anyone to Senate

(Newser) - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich won't appoint anyone to Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat while his corruption scandal unfolds, his lawyer said today. "Why would he do that?" said Ed Genson. "Harry Reid said that they're not going to accept anybody he picks." Genson, who spoke to reporters...

Ill. Court Nixes Motion to Declare Blagojevich Unfit

Meanwhile, lawyer complains of a lack of 'standard of proof' in impeachment proceedings

(Newser) - Illinois’ top court today rejected the state attorney general’s motion to have Rod Blagojevich declared unfit to be governor due to corruption charges against him, the Chicago Tribune reports, even as his lawyer charged that members of a state House committee looking into impeachment wouldn’t give Blagojevich a...

Blago Denied Lottery Post to Jackson's Wife

Congressman says he wouldn't give $25K to campaign

(Newser) - Jesse Jackson Jr. may be "Senate Candidate No. 5" in the Blagojevich scandal, but he's been cooperating with feds investigating the governor since at least last summer, reports ABC7 in Chicago. Jackson told investigators that Blagojevich refused to appoint Jackson's wife as the state's lottery director in 2003 because...

Blago Hangs On to Job as Bargaining Chip
 Blago Hangs 
 On to Job as 
 Bargaining Chip

ANALYSIS
Dec 16, 2008 11:55 AM CST

Blago Hangs On to Job as Bargaining Chip

Blagojevich holding onto job as bargaining chip

(Newser) - For Rod Blagojevich, everything is a shakedown. For now, writes Carrie Budoff Brown in Politico, he’s staying in office because it gives him some leverage over his own fate. Though he’s facing near-certain impeachment, that’s a long process. In the meantime, he could trade his resignation for...

Blago's Impeachment Begins
 Blago's Impeachment Begins 
Dec 16, 2008 8:17 AM CST

Blago's Impeachment Begins

Governor no stranger to this, lawyer says

(Newser) - The Illinois House voted 113-0 yesterday to authorize a committee to look into Rod Blagojevich’s misdeeds, the first step towards impeaching the disgraced governor, the Chicago Tribune reports, in an unprecedented Democratic-led attempt to oust Illinois’ first Democratic governor in a quarter-century. But Democrats brushed off calls to strip...

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