Criminal complaint on Blagojevich a window on dark side of Chicago politics

Chicago scene courtesy Choose Chicago.(Chicago, Ill.)—Rumors about impeachment have plagued Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich for months, but a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday reveals charges more serious than impeachment. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents on federal corruption charges on Tuesday alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity; conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.

A 12-page press release issued by the Dept. of Justice’s U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said Blagojevich sought personal benefits for himself and his wife in exchange for the Senate appointment made available after the election of President-Elect Barack Obama. Allegations also include, among other things, the governor wanted campaign donations for himself.

Just last week, on December 4, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor that he might “get some (money) up front, maybe” from Senate Candidate 5, if he named Senate Candidate 5 to the Senate seat, to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for Blagojevich if he ran for re-election. In a recorded conversation on October 31, Blagojevich claimed he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate 5 as follows: “We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.”

The full list of allegations in the DOJ news release reads like a novel. Blagojevich allegedly told his advisor and Harris, “I want to make money.” The governor had also told an advisor, “I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing.” The complaint also alleges in a conversation with Harris on November 4, Blagojevich analogized his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to the highest bidder.

The charges include historical allegations that Blagojevich and Harris schemed with others:
•including previously convicted defendants Antoin Rezko, Stuart Levine, Ali Ata and others – since becoming governor in 2002 to obtain and attempt to obtain financial benefits for himself, his family and third parties, including his campaign committee, Friends of Blagojevich, in exchange for appointments to state boards and commissions, state employment, state contracts and access to state funds.
•A portion of the affidavit recounts the testimony of various witnesses at Rezko’s trial earlier this year.

The New York Times in a June, 2007, story said Rezko was also a friend and patron of Obama until Rezko was indicted on federal charges of business fraud and influence peddling involving the Blagojevich administration.

“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” Fitzgerald said. “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.”

Blagojevich’s legal entanglements bring to mind a remark by British novelist E. M. Forster who once described Chicago in a letter: “Chicago—is—oh well a façade of skyscrapers facing a lake, and behind the façade every type of dubiousness.”