Tuesday’s ruling by a three-judge panel dismissed five counts against Blagojevich, tossing ones linked to his bid to secure a Cabinet post in President Barack Obama’s administration in exchange for appointing an Obama adviser to the president’s former U.S. Senate seat. The charges suggested the former governor attempted to swap the seat for campaign money or a job. The 14-year term was one of the longest for corruption in a state where four of the last seven governors have gone to prison.
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Blagojevich will be re-sentenced and could possibly be retried on the counts overturned on Tuesday.
Patti Blagojevich, the wife of the former governor, and her daughters joined Goodman in the press conference and maintained their conviction in Blagojevich’s innocence. Yet Blagojevich’s constant denials of wrongdoing before and after his trials were, in fact, “the antithesis of accepting responsibility”, the court said.
Blagojevich wanted a Cabinet job in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to Obama’s vacant Senate seat.
His attorneys filed an appeal in July 2013, saying Blagojevich was simply conducting legal “political horse-trading”, and on some counts the appeals court agreed.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago released the dramatic ruling Tuesday.
“It would be more than a little surprising to Members of Congress if the judiciary found in the Hobbs Act, or the mail fraud statute, a rule making everyday politics criminal”, Judge Frank Easterbook wrote for the court, referring to a law that deals with extortion.
Joe Fitzpatrick, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, said the prosecutor’s office has received the ruling, but he declined to discuss it.
The well-coiffed Blagojevich quickly became the butt of jokes on late-night TV, including for his foul-mouthed rants on FBI wiretaps that were released after his arrest.
In a phone conversation with a top aide that was secretly recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Blagojevich famously said, “I mean I’ve got this thing…and it’s f***ing golden”. “They’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation”.
A federal appeals court has thrown out several portions of the 2011 conviction of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich but left numerous charges intact and said Blagojevich will remain in jail while further legal proceedings play out.
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If prosecutors don’t fight the appellate court ruling, the opinion said, the district judge should “proceed directly to resentencing”.
