[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Brad -- What Does He Mean?

Tue Dec 16 13:01:55 EST 2008

Bill,

Whew!  That was close, thank goodness Blago didn't resign prematurely.
 Seems he may be innocent according to the ObamaTimes, er, New York
Times (attached). God Bless the little bugger, he was just talking.
Ain't no law against that.

Brad

-------------------

December 16, 2008
News Analysis
In Blagojevich Case, Is It a Crime, or Just Talk?
By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON — When Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in
Chicago, announced the arrest of the Illinois governor, Rod R.
Blagojevich, Mr. Fitzgerald said he had acted to halt a political
crime spree that included what he called an "appalling" effort to sell
off the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

But now some lawyers are beginning to suggest that the juiciest part
of the case against Mr. Blagojevich, the part involving the Senate
seat, may be less than airtight. There is no evidence, at least none
that has been disclosed, that the governor actually received anything
of value — and the Senate appointment has yet to be made.

Ever since the country's founding, prosecutors, defense lawyers and
juries have been trying to define the difference between criminality
and political deal-making. They have never established a clear-cut
line between the offensive and the illegal, and the hours of
wiretapped conversations involving Mr. Blagojevich, filled with crass,
profane talk about benefiting from the Senate vacancy, may fall into a
legal gray area.

Robert S. Bennett, one of Washington's best-known white-collar
criminal defense lawyers, said Mr. Blagojevich faced nearly
insurmountable legal problems in a case that includes a raft of
corruption accusations unrelated to Mr. Obama's Senate seat. But Mr.
Bennett said the case raised some potentially thorny issues about
political corruption.

"This town is full of people who call themselves ambassadors, and all
they did was pay $200,000 or $300,000 to the Republican or Democratic
Party," said Mr. Bennett, referring to a passage in the criminal
complaint filed against the governor suggesting that Mr. Blagojevich
was interested in an ambassadorial appointment in return for the
Senate seat. "You have to wonder, How much of this guy's problem was
his language, rather than what he really did?"

In presenting his case, Mr. Fitzgerald said Mr. Blagojevich had
crossed the line from deal-making to criminality, citing an example in
the complaint in which the governor discussed with an aide obtaining a
$300,000-a-year job from the Service Employees International Union in
return for naming a candidate to the seat.

"We're not trying to criminalize people making political horse trades
on policies or that sort of thing," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "But it is
criminal when people are doing it for their personal enrichment. And
they're doing it in a way that is, in this case, clearly criminal."

But politicians routinely receive political contributions in return
for their decisions, whether they involve making appointments or
taking a stand on legislation. Lawmakers vote in favor of bills and
steer appropriations backed by their donors without fear that
prosecutors will bug their offices and homes.

And while prosecutors have brought increasing numbers of political
corruption cases in recent years, they have done so using laws that
make it a crime for an official to deprive the public of "honest
services." The cases are based on statutes that never define exactly
what conduct might be illegal and do not require proof of a bribe or a
quid pro quo to establish criminal wrongdoing.

What those statutes do require is evidence that an official at least
tried to seek something of value in return for an official action.

In the case of Mr. Blagojevich, it would be legal for the governor to
accept a campaign contribution from someone he appointed to the Senate
seat. What would create legal problems for him is if he was
tape-recorded specifically offering a seat in exchange for the
contribution. What would make the case even easier to prosecute is if
he was recorded offering the seat in exchange for a personal favor,
like cash, a job or a job for a family member.

Indeed the government has claimed the wiretaps show that Mr.
Blagojevich told his aides that he wanted to offer the seat in
exchange for contributions and for personal favors, including jobs for
himself and his wife.

But talk is not enough. Any case will ultimately turn on the strength
of the tapes, and whether the governor made it clear to any of the
candidates for the Senate seat that he would give it only in exchange
for something of value.

Several lawyers cautioned that the complaint presented last week was a
snapshot of the evidence that Mr. Fitzgerald had amassed so far, in an
investigation that is continuing.

In moving to arrest Mr. Blagojevich on Dec. 9, Mr. Fitzgerald acted
without having presented his case before a grand jury. He is now
likely to use such a panel to obtain additional witness testimony
exploring whether anyone, including anyone in the Obama camp, had
specific discussions with the governor's office about filling the
vacancy.

Mr. Fitzgerald's decision to bypass a grand jury initially could
signal a belief on his part that he did not yet have a fully
prosecutable case on his hand, though it appears to have been prompted
at least in part by the publication in The Chicago Tribune on Dec. 5
of an article that tipped off Mr. Blagojevich that investigators were
listening in on his conversations.

Mr. Fitzgerald has also said he had been worried that if he did not
intervene, Mr. Blagojevich might go ahead with some of his schemes,
including appointing a successor to Mr. Obama.

In the wiretaps cited in the complaint, Mr. Blagojevich talked about
what he said was an urgent need for political contributions and
favors, but it was not clear whether he took concerted action to
actually obtain anything in return for the seat. Several lawyers said
Mr. Fitzgerald might need more evidence to prosecute Mr. Blagojevich
over the issue.

"It's a very difficult case for a number of reasons; not the least is
the nebulous nature of the charges and the inherently difficult issues
when you're talking about a person executing his First Amendment right
to promote a particular politician," said Michael D. Monico, a former
federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago.

"Merely thinking about something is not a crime," said Mr. Monico, a
lawyer for Christopher Kelly, a former Blagojevich fund-raiser who was
indicted last year on tax charges "Just talking about something is not
a crime. You need another action for someone to commit a crime."

Christopher Drew contributed reporting from Chicago.

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 8:53 AM, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Thanks for keeping ahead of me in the reading, Brad.
>
> Fitz had to do something spectacular, and stuff only leaks out of his
> office when he wants it to leak.
>
> He certainly didn't need this nonsense to make his case against Blago,
> so nothing was lost from a prosecutor's point of view, and he needed to
> capture all the headlines before the democrats started talking about the
> "traditional" "firing of the prosecutors" ritual Bill Clinton started.
>
> I don't think even Obama can get away with firing Fitz at this point,
> although I would not be surprised if he didn't at least make a stab at it.
>
> If he tries now, I would expect a special prosecutor, and I would expect
> that special prosecutor to be Fitz.
>
> He may try anyhow, because he's toast if he can't get Fitz out of the
> picture.  I believe this is why the Chicago machine fielded a
> candidate--specifically to get Fitz out of the picture before they all
> wound up in jail.
>
> It IS an interesting struggle, and it WILL be interesting to see how it
> turns out.
>
> The fact that it has gotten this far speaks volumes about the state of
> this nation across the board.
>
> Bill Effros
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>> Bill,
>>
>> Here's another version of what you already know but it does raise a
>> question.  Did Fitz leak to the Chicago Tribune?  I'm wondering if he
>> saw a window of opportunity that would close after 20JAN09 and decided
>> to make a pre-emptive strike.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> -------------------
>>
>> Obama's Helpful Hand in Blago-Rezko 'Pay-to-Play' Scheme
>>
>> Posted By Abraham H. Miller On December 16, 2008 @ 12:00 am In .
>> Feature 01, . Positioning, Crime, History, Legal, Money, Politics, US
>> News | No Comments
>>
>> Against the backdrop of Chicago's Wacker Drive, Fox News' Greta Van
>> Susteren stood and analyzed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's most
>> recent [1] "pay-to-play" scheme, the auctioning of President-elect
>> Barack Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate.
>>
>> Absent from the analysis of Governor Blagojevich's role as auctioneer
>> was the governor's involvement in an earlier scandal.  [2] That
>> earlier story went generally untouched by the media — outside of
>> Chicago — because it had a direct bearing on the character of
>> then-presidential candidate and media darling Barack Obama.
>>
>> Now, numerous journalists have been captured before the camera's lens
>> wondering why U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald "prematurely" had Blago
>> arrested and didn't build a stronger case.
>>
>> None of them is suggesting the obvious - that perhaps Fitzgerald had
>> to compel a media frenzy to avoid being transferred or even fired by
>> the new administration for his involvement in the earlier case that
>> has ties to the president-elect.  (After all, it is only the most
>> partisan Democrats that believe only [3] Alberto Gonzales fires
>> non-compliant U.S. attorneys.)
>>
>> To understand Fitzgerald's potential problem with the Obama
>> administration, you need to go back to the original "pay-for-play"
>> scheme that caused Blago and wife, Patty, to come under the eye of the
>> federal prosecutor.  You also need to confront Barack  Obama's role in
>> that scheme.
>>
>> If you don't remember [4] Antonin (Tony) Rezko, here's the Cliff Notes
>> version: If you wanted to build or expand a medical facility in
>> Illinois, you had to cut a deal with Tony. He was the guy with
>> contacts on the state board whose approval you needed. To put it
>> bluntly, he was the guy you paid off to pay off the other guys so you
>> could get the required permits.
>>
>> Originally, the board was made up of fifteen members. Now, in Chicago,
>> where bribery has become a cultural art form, bribing half of fifteen
>> means you need eight guys in your pocket. That's a heavy overhead
>> cost.  What if you could reduce your overhead by about forty percent?
>> Just think how much more money you could make.
>>
>> [5] Enter Barack Obama, state senator and chairman of the senate's
>> Health and Human Services Committee. Obama successfully introduced
>> legislation to cut the size of the board down to nine members.  Now
>> you only have to bribe five members. But Obama's legislation didn't
>> just cut the size of the board; it put appointment power directly in
>> the hands of Governor Rod Blagojevich.  And Governor "Blago" (as we
>> Chicagoans love to call him) quickly appointed a number of Rezko's
>> cronies to the board.
>>
>> One Democratic stalwart without flinching said to me, "Obama did that
>> because he believed in more efficient government." And Mrs. Rezko
>> closed on the adjoining property next to the Obama mansion on the same
>> day as the Obamas closed on their house, which netted the Obama's a
>> $300,000 discount on their purchase, because Mrs. Rezko believed the
>> Obamas would be good for the neighborhood. I understand that
>> thoroughly. In a neighborhood with unrepentant terrorists like Bill
>> Ayers, you need some people with integrity to keep up property values.
>>
>> After his conviction on sixteen of twenty-four counts of the federal
>> fraud indictment and a revocation of his bail, Rezko, according to
>> Chicago observers, was meeting in the federal holding pen with
>> Fitzgerald and singing like the first robin of spring.
>>
>> Veteran Chicago journalists were on 24/7 Patty watch, thinking that
>> Mrs. Blago was at least going to be the refrain in Rezko's song and
>> Blago himself was going to be the entire first stanza.  But if Rezko
>> could sing about Blago, would Blago be cooing about Obama? Or maybe a
>> duet would be in the works?
>>
>> Federal prosecutors do get transferred and even fired for prosecuting
>> the party in power. [6] Ask Carole Lam who successfully prosecuted
>> Congressman Randy Cunningham and found herself looking for work as a
>> result. So Fitzgerald was probably looking at being replaced by a more
>> compliant prosecutor who would know how to cut a deal and keep the
>> song birds silent.
>>
>> If Obama could be connected to the "pay-for-play" scheme for building
>> medical facilities, both Rezko and Blago had a reduced jail time card
>> to play.  And just as the latest Blago scandal broke, Rezko, whose
>> lawyers were screaming for a quick sentencing hearing, [7] has had a
>> postponement.  And in a rare display of coordinated silence, neither
>> the Rezko defense team nor the talkative Fitzgerald is commenting on
>> the delay.
>>
>> So, Blago's newer and bigger indictment keeps Fitzgerald in the game.
>> There is now no way the Obama administration is going to be able to
>> transfer or fire Fitzgerald and keep alive the "change" mantra.  Too
>> bad the eight federal prosecutors that [8] Alberto (I don't  recall)
>> Gonzales fired couldn't drop a high profile case in front of the
>> media.
>>
>> As for how contagious Chicago corruption is, it now appears that [9]
>> Rahm Emanuel, despite denials, has been engaged in conversations with
>> Blago over the president-elect's replacement.  That in itself is not
>> illegal.  But if Blago told Emanuel that he wanted money or a cushy
>> union-related job for Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett's appointment to
>> the vacated senate seat, and Emanuel didn't report it, that is a
>> problem for the administration.
>>
>> It's a long way to spring, but who says song birds can't sing in the winter.
>>
>> Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com
>>
>> URL to article:
>> http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obamas-helpful-hand-in-blago-rezko-pay-to-play-scheme/
>>
>> URLs in this post:
>> [1] "pay-to-play" scheme,:
>> http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5332897.ece
>> [2] That earlier story: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../favicon.ico
>> [3] Alberto Gonzales fires:
>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/republicans/3110808/Alberto-Gonzales-and-o
>> ther-Republicans-could-face-criminal-charges-in-US.html
>>
>> [4] Antonin (Tony) Rezko:
>> http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/989635,CST-NWS-timeline05.article
>> [5] Enter Barack Obama: http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=3566
>> [6] Ask Carole Lam:
>> http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/02/09/united_states_attorneys
>> [7] has had a postponement:
>> http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/11/rezkos-sentencing-is-delayed
>> [8] Alberto (I don't  recall) Gonzales:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgbJSrIvWc
>> [9] Rahm Emanuel:
>> http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/11/a-show-of-support-or-a-signal
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 8:39 AM, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Brad,
>>>
>>> What do you suppose Blago means when his spokesman says ""The governor
>>> has indicated in the past there is more to this story that he's wanting
>>> to tell at an appropriate time."
>>>
>>> How do you cut a deal with this guy when you know the FBI is listening
>>> in and watching everything he hears or sees?
>>>
>>> The only deals Fitzgerald will cut are for Daley and Obama.
>>>
>>> Bill Effros
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