A federal appeals court has thrown out five of the convictions against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as his 14-year prison sentence.
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Faced with an 18-count conviction and what it described as overwhelming evidence of a former Illinois governor’s guilt in a political corruption case, a federal appeals court Tuesday nonetheless nixed five counts and called for a resentencing.
At Blagojevich’s 2011 sentencing, Zagel scolded Blagojevich, saying, “When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured”. But his attempts to trade the Senate seat for campaign cash, however, were illegal, the court concluded. They include the attempted shakedown of the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago for a contribution to Blagojevich’s campaign.
Rod Blagojevich’s brother says he’s hopeful after an appeals court overturned some corruption convictions against the former Illinois governor. He said he would urge his client to challenge the panel’s finding, by possibly by asking the full appeals court to rehear the case.
His lawyers argued in both the trial and their appeal that the former governor’s actions amounted to nothing more than standard political horse trading. Eleven of those charges were filed in connection with allegations that Blagojevich wanted to trade President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for money or a cabinet appointment for himself.
While the court’s decision is not a victory for the family, they showed some of what Patti Blagojevich calls her husband’s “eternal optimism”.
“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. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon declined to discuss the ruling, including prosecutors’ next moves.
Findings by the 7th Circuit could eventually be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The most notorious excerpt was one where he crows about the Senate seat, “I’ve got this thing and it’s f– golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f***ing nothing”.
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It is unclear whether Blagojevich will now serve less than his original 14-year sentence. I am aware of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago.
