[Vision2020] Governor of Illinois Arrested

[Tom Hansen]

>From USA Today -

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Illinois governor charged with public corruption

Here's the formal complaint and news release that we received from the 
Justice Department. 

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/files/rjb_complaint.pdf

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/files/rrb_jh_129_final_rel.pdf

This is the summary of probable cause that FBI Agent Daniel Cain uses in 
the court filing:

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Since approximately 2003, the government has been investigating 
allegations of illegal activity occurring in State of Illinois government 
as part of the administration of Governor Rod Blagojevich. As further 
detailed below, the investigation has developed evidence that: (a) 
beginning not later than in or about 2002, Rod Blagojevich has conspired 
with multiple individuals, including, beginning not later than in or about 
October 2008, John Harris, to devise and participate in a scheme, which 
used and contemplated the use of the mails and interstate wire 
communications, to defraud the State of Illinois and its residents of the 
honest services of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris by corruptly using the 
office of Governor of the State of Illinois to obtain and attempt to 
obtain personal gain, including financial gain, for Rod Blagojevich and 
third parties with whom he is associated; and (b) beginning no later than 
November 2008, Rod Blagojevich and John Harris have corruptly solicited 
and demanded the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members 
responsible for editorials critical of Rod Blagojevich, intending to be 
influenced and rewarded in connection with State of Illinois financial 
assistance in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field. The evidence 
demonstrates that the corrupt conduct undertaken included but was not 
limited to the following:

a. Defendant Rod Blagojevich and at times defendant John Harris, together 
with others, obtained and attempted to obtain financial benefits for Rod 
Blagojevich, members of the Blagojevich family, and third parties 
including Friends of Blagojevich, in exchange for appointments to state 
boards and commissions, state employment, state contracts, and access to 
state funds; b. Defendants Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, together with 
others, offered to, and threatened to withhold from, the Tribune Company 
substantial state financial assistance in connection with Wrigley Field, 
which assistance Rod Blagojevich believed to be worth at least $100 
million to the Tribune Company, for the private purpose of inducing the 
controlling shareholder of the Tribune Company to fire members of the 
editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper owned by the Tribune 
Company, who were responsible for editorials critical of Rod Blagojevich; 
c. Defendants Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, together with others, 
attempted to use Rod Blagojevich’s authority to appoint a United States 
Senator for the purpose of obtaining personal benefits for Rod 
Blagojevich, including, among other things, appointment as Secretary of 
Health & Human Services in the President-elect’s administration, and 
alternatively, a lucrative job which they schemed to induce a union to 
provide to Rod Blagojevich in exchange for appointing as senator an 
individual whom Rod Blagojevich and John Harris believed to be favored by 
union officials and their associates.

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Update at 9:47 a.m. ET: USA TODAY's Judy Keen has confirmed with 
prosecutors that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning 
on federal corruption charges. 

The U.S. attorney's office says the Democratic governor and his chief of 
staff, John Harris, are accused of soliciting bribes and committing wire 
fraud.

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. 
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says. “They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for 
sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself 
personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting 
his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to 
trample editorial voices of criticism.  The citizens of Illinois deserve 
public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting 
a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions,” he adds.

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: The Associated Press says Blagojevich and his 
chief of staff were taken into custody.

Update at 9:26 a.m. ET: The Chicago Sun-Times says it has confirmed the 
Blagojevich arrest with an unnamed source of its own. A news conference is 
expected later today.

Original posting at 9:21 a.m. ET: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was 
arrested this morning by federal agents, according to the Chicago Tribune. 
The paper, which cites a single unnamed source, says it couldn't confirm 
the information with a spokesman for the Democratic governor or federal 
prosecutors.

The charges have not been disclosed. 

The FBI has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation of corruption in 
the Blagojevich administration.

Earlier this morning, the Trib reported that federal investigators were 
authorized to surreptitiously record the governor while he was choosing a 
replacement for President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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