A long-simmering dispute between Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers dramatically spilled out for everyone to see last week, with one claiming that no lawsuit would be filed to stop the Illinois Senate’s impeachment trial of the governor and another claiming a lawsuit was possible. It all culminated with the disastrous resignation of the governor’s top defense attorney, Ed Genson.
Insiders say Genson, the senior member of the governor’s legal team and a crack criminal defense attorney, had retained a high-priced lawyer from Boston who was an expert in impeachment issues. That attorney was preparing a case to be filed with the state Supreme Court this week to at least delay the Senate trial.
The ultimate goal reportedly was to force the Senate to agree to abandon the trial in exchange for the governor stepping aside and handing power over to Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. The governor would then still receive his paycheck until at least the end of the fiscal year, which ends in June, and would also likely retain some of his state police body guards.
But Sam Adam Jr., who has known Genson literally since the day he was born, reportedly convinced the governor to reject the idea.
Adam and Genson have been at odds for weeks, insiders claim. Adam was the governor’s emissary to Roland Burris regarding his U.S. Senate appointment. Genson had said in public the governor would not appoint a replacement for Barack Obama and privately told Adam he shouldn’t become involved in the ordeal.
Adam also reportedly convinced the governor to make the controversial decision to boycott the state Senate impeachment trial, apparently without consulting Genson in advance.
Blagojevich loves nothing more than people who agree with him, and Adam has reportedly played that role since signing on to the legal team in December. Genson, on the other hand, is accustomed to calling the shots for his clients. Genson hates nothing more than a client who won’t listen, and he apparently didn’t realize what he was getting into with Blagojevich. The governor is infamous for his refusal to listen to anyone who doesn’t agree with whatever the voices in his head are saying at the moment.
The tension became so intolerable that Genson threatened to resign from the legal team entirely after Blagojevich made the decision this week to drop the carefully prepared court case against the impeachment trial and instead embark on an i ntense publicity blitz of national and local TV and radio programs.
Genson gave a couple of interviews last Thursday that more than just hinted at his discontent. Genson, for instance, told The Associated Press he wasn’t involved in impeachment decisions. “I should be,” he said, “but I’m not.”
A couple of hours later, Adam told the AP that the lawsuit to block the Senate trial might still be filed, but Genson denied any lawsuit was imminent. Genson then told the Sun-Times, “I don’t know anything about it.” A day later, he resigned. As I write this, Genson is also reportedly refusing to refund any of the $500,000 legal retainer he received from Blagojevich’s campaign fund.
The governor kicked off his ill-fated publicity blitz by appearing on a Chicago radio show Friday morning. Blagojevich claimed the impeachment process was an orchestrated plan to remove him from office so that Quinn could raise taxes. Amazingly enough, the hosts let him get away with this crazy talk. Blagojevich made the same claim later in the day to reporters, who weren’t so accepting of his silly theory.
Blagojevich also said he was still hopeful the Senate would change its impeachment trial rules to allow him to call witnesses like White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel has said that no untoward or illegal offers were made by Blagojevich regarding Obama’s Senate seat.
But Senate Democrats said last week that nobody from the governor’s office has contacted them formally or informally about the trial rules. Blagojevich’s trial boycott meant that he missed the deadline last week to ask that witnesses be subpoenaed.
In other words, he’s just throwing verbal bombs on his way off the cliff, and Genson refused to jump with him.
- Bill Baar - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:15 am:
Genson gave legal advice. The Guv wants political advice… and is probably taking the wrong legal route, but he thinks the political route will give him 20 senate votes?
All I can think…
- red dog - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:15 am:
How do you comment on this? This seems to be a mental health issue,not a political issue-the man needs help
- IrishPirate - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:16 am:
Will Blago hire an attorney to fax a letter to Genson requesting the retainer back?
Will it be the same attorney who Patti Blago had send a letter to her former charity employer?
Tune in tomorrow to see how the Blago turns.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:20 am:
Too rich, Rich.
Hard too imagine what Adam Jr.’s end-game is in all this. Can it possibly be the much-bandied “influence the jury pool” for a trial that may be a couple of years away?
I have a flash for the gov: once he’s out of office, the camera crews are going to pack up and leave. Lot going on in the world now, and the freak show will be old news in a hurry.
Genson keeping the retainer is hilarious. Good for him.
And Sam hadn’t been paid from the campaign fund, according to the disclosure filed last week. What’s his motivation? Publicity? Careful what you wish for.
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:23 am:
The proceedings that may ultimately be most fascinating will be Blagojevich’s inevitable bankruptcy filing. What will be the over/under on the number of lawyers listed as creditors?
(On a more rhetorical note, are Rod’s personal finances in worse or better shape than the state’s under his stewardship?)
- GA Watcher - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:25 am:
Adam Jr.’s end-game is quite evident actually. It’s to impress future potentail clients who want a tough talking, in your face, media hound for an attorney.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:29 am:
I thought Genson was a fool for singing on to this loser of a case in the first place. Now that I know about the half-mill retainer, I think he’s a genius.
But look for Sam Adam, Jr. to file a suit forcing Genson to refund the retainer, claiming breach of contract, in 10, 9, 8….
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:29 am:
Here is a possible end game. Blago’s wire taps are condidered by far the most incriminating evidence. I believe their strategy is for him to go out and say some of the most outrageous things for years to come. Then when it goes to trial the defense will say, that’s the way he is-always saying crazy stuff he doesn’t mean.
The problem will be the mountains of documents and witnesses that will show things actually did happen and were not just crazy boasts.
- Crystal Clear - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:32 am:
I haven’t listened or saw the entire GMA or View interviews, but I certainly hope that that don’t lay down and simply become enablers as NBC and Don and Roma have done.
- Swami - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:41 am:
Rod should re-read the short story: “The Monkey’s Paw”. Getting what you wish for requires knowing exactly how to wish for it, and what the fine print entails.
It is hard to understand what Rod thought this PR blitz was going to do for him: did he think voters would be impressed and converted, that they would then get on their phones and flood their elected representative’s offices with pleas to abandon the impeachment? Any Senator voting against impeachment will have a hard time getting re-elected.
Or did he think that it was a kind of brinksmanship, threatening to spill stuff embarrassing to Obama and Madigan and Daley, or just roll them in the tar with himself, so they would pull strings to cancel or delay the impeachment under the table for him out of fear?
If Rod had let his lawyers off the chain, they might have gummed up the works for quite a while, as Rich points out, perhaps even to the point of negotiating an exchange of impeachment for temporary step-down. Rod’s ego, kept at max PSI by yes-men like Adams Jr., would not accept that.
The follow-ups on all the talk shows he appeared on will be playbacks of his denials, followed by playbacks of the released tapes the judge just okayed. And he will not be in their studios when those TV hosts cluck their tongues and wag their fingers and point out every lie.
- jury instructions - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:44 am:
adams is thinking about the jury pool..cant put him on the stand so he has to get his story out now hoping to find a couple of sympathetic jurors later on
- Fan of the Game - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:45 am:
Genson is a smart, smart man.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:49 am:
As a lawyer, all I can say is there is nothing worse than an impossible client. That particular client wants to monopolize all of your time to the detriment of your other clients, your person and your private life, and he tells you exactly how to perform your job and reduces you to mere mouthpiece, rejecting any and all legal advice you can provide to him.
I’m no criminal attorney, but I am sure there is at least one wing in every prison filled with those types of impossible clients who blame their lawyers and the “system” for their current situations.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:51 am:
jury instructions, he’s also making a mockery of the proceedings and most likely hurting his client with the judge.
- Doug Dobmeyer - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 11:58 am:
I saw Blago on the Today Show this morning - pathetic! The man needs mental health counseling now.
The dust up with his lawyer is inconsequential - two buzzards fighting over the entrails.
What’s pathetic about Blago is he thinks arguing in the court of public opinion in the media is a replacement for being at the Senate trial. He doesn’t seem to understand that once the trial is over so is that forum for him to be heard in. A media play should only be done as part of a bigger strategy.
Doug Dobmeyer
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 12:05 pm:
Doug, you contradicted yourself. If one lawyer was arguing against this media blitz and resigned (in part) over it, and the other was arguing for it, then the disagreement is not at all “inconsequential” if you believe his media play is a mistake.
- fan of capitol fax - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 1:43 pm:
per Kass there is a connection between Genson/DeLeo/Cullerton. If you believe the combine theory of Il govt that Kass regularly pedals this looks like:
Genson wants to negotiate a resignation w/out impeachment trial as the best interests of the combine. Find a formula that gives Blago something, like salary and body guards for not bringing out all the dirty details of the combine in a senate impeachment trial atmosphere (he is not at the trial obviously but can air the secrets on a new radio show/public appearences which it appears he is threatening to do per his Today show et al comments now)
Adams is looking out for Blago as a lawyer presumably should and not the combine. Hence he recognizes there is no way to avoid impeachment so is looking at a stategy that will help Blago with a jury pool and put as negative a light on his prosecutors (both US Att. and State legislators) as possible.
I have no idea what goes on other than what appears in the press but this scenario seems plausible to me.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 1:45 pm:
In response I would say: Please remove tinfoil hat.
- fan of capitol fax - Monday, Jan 26, 09 @ 2:13 pm:
It is difficult to guage what is tinfoil hat conspiracy theories vs. how Il govt actually works.
If someone wrote on here last year they thought Blago conducted state govt. the way he is caught on tape conducting state govt. I think a tinfoil hat response would have been appropriate also.
Until those tapes are entirely transcribed for the public with many (virtually every?) major political players also conversing with the gov and his staff (so we will see how others beside the gov communicate their practice of govt.)we will see whats what.
I mean what is tinfoil hat? That there is a bi partisan combine of corrupt politicians/businessmen running the state? That a lawyer connected to this would try to get Blago to go quietly?
It certainly sounds crazy. But in this state… It is plausible IMO.