US Attorney Blagojevich Press Conference Now Is Over

Expect all the networks to carry and stream online. I'll put up updates as they come along.

Apparently they bugged his campaign office and tapped his home phone. They have all of this 'pay to play' stuff on tape.

The government says he wanted a $50K kickback from the CEO of a children's hospital that received state money. When the kickback didn't show up, he tried to have the funding pulled from the hospital.

Classy guy.

Blagojevich wanted to have Tribune editors who were critical of him in exchange for state support for tax credits.

He wanted a cabinet post or an ambassadorship and a job for his wife in exchange for nominating a particular person to Obama's Senate seat.

Fitzgerald says Obama was not involved in any negotiations.

Wow, this isn't some sort of complicated scheme, it's just hardball give to get.

Now Fitz is asking people who may have been approached by Blagojevich before the taps went in to come forward...so there maybe more to come.

FBI Agent in Charge of Chicago says 'it's a new low for Illinois', that's saying something. "If it (Illinois) isn't the most corrupt state, it's certainly one hell of a competitor". Says his agents were shocked and sickened by what they heard.

Fitz says there's a bills sitting on the Governor's desk that was the subject of a bribe and they wanted to get Blagojevich out before he could act of them. That's part of the reason for the timing of the indictments.

Wow, just wow.

Fitz says he isn't going to suggest whether Blago should resign or be impeached. He is still governor and could still appoint Obama's successor.

Interesting the Trib had a story on this ready to go before the wiretaps and bug were ready to go but held the story after Fitz asked them to hold off. So the Trib held off publishing a story they are a part of. I think in general it's the right thing to do but they held off when they had something at stake as well. Interesting ethics case study for future J-school classes.

At this point Fitz says they are charging 'conspiracy to commit a crime' and not acting on it. Yet. They are still trying to find out if any of these schemes came to fruition. Even if they haven't they still think they have him on conspiracy, which will get you tossed in jail just as much as actually doing the crime.

Fitz doesn't know if Obama was told about the investigation as part of his normal briefings. He was pretty flustered trying to answer that one. Can't wait to see what Obama says about this.

Well, that's over. Damn. If half that shit is true (and it's apparently all on tape), that's just off the charts.

posted by DrewM. at 12:11 PM

| Access Comments