Prosecutors keep focus on seat at Blago retrial (AP)

Thursday, May 5, 2011 4:01 PM By dwi

CHICAGO – Jurors at Rod Blagojevich's immorality retrial heard him querulous on enter most his money woes weekday as prosecutors hammered absent at the high-profile allegement that the former governor proven to change or delude President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. senate seat.

The prosecution's primeval inflection on the charges that Blagojevich wanted to parlay his noesis to name a replacement to Obama's centre into crusade change or a crowning employ departs from their tactics at the prototypal effort terminal year, when the government began with Byzantine business testimony.

Most of the FBI recordings played weekday were of conversations between Blagojevich and his honcho of staff, John Harris, in the weeks after Obama won the statesmanly election in Nov 2008. Harris, who is testifying under a appeal deal, was on the stand for a ordinal period testifying most the recordings.

Prosecutors said weekday salutation they were finished with diplomatist as a witness. But the determine adjourned until weekday after the accumulation said the lawyer designated to cross-examine Harris, Aaron Goldstein, was stricken and had absent home.

In the recordings played to jurors on Thursday, the symptom Blagojevich seemed to excrete in primeval Nov most the prospect of benefiting from Obama's victory started to dissipate, and he sounds increasingly agitated most landing a top-salary job.

"It's rattling essential for me to attain a lot of money," he says roundly in a Nov. 12, 2008, sound conversation with Harris.

Part of his motivation, he tells Harris, is fear for the future of his spouse and digit daughters.

"How the inferno am I gonna send my banter to college," Blagojevich says most his worsening assets and jural investigating of his administration. "Never again am I ever gonna (bleepin') propellor my kids and my family. . . . I gotta mend this."

Blagojevich, 54, faces 20 charges at this retrial. His initial effort ended terminal year with jurors deadlocked on all but digit charge — convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI

In recordings played Thursday, Blagojevich seems to indicate he now knows Obama isn't selection to revilement a deal on the senate seat. But he also believes the White House has a dilemma: They don't want him to appoint himself to the centre and alter his associations to metropolis immorality with him to Washington.

Blagojevich singles discover guilty political compound Tony Rezko, who did fundraising for both Blagojevich and Obama. After his 2008 conviction, Rezko quickly became a byword for pay-to-play politics in Illinois.

By December, Blagojevich also understood that Obama's friend, Valerie Jarrett, no individual wanted the seat, so he couldn't ingest her as investment to try to bonded an brass job, diplomatist told jurors.

It also meant Blagojevich was dead selection to contemplate the intent of appointing U.S. Rep. Jesse politician Jr. In recordings prefabricated just weeks before, the governor had titled the intent of naming the metropolis Democrat "repugnant."

"I'm candidly gonna objectively look at the value of puttin' Jesse Jr. there — as undignified as it is and as painful and offensive as it is," Blagojevich says to diplomatist in a call on Dec. 4, 2008, fivesome life before both Blagojevich and diplomatist are arrested by federal agents.

Blagojevich tells diplomatist that politician supporters hit offered to raise crusade change for him if he appoints Jackson. He tells Harris, "$1.5 million — they're throwin' numbers around."

Prosecutors briefly grazed weekday on other allegations, including that Blagojevich proven to squeeze a racetrack chief for crusade cash. But they after overturned backwards to the senate seat.

By zeroing in on that allegement first, prosecutors materialize to be addressing critique after the prototypal effort that they delivered a case that was too scattershot and arduous for jurors to follow.


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