From a press release:

Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced that she will refer her ongoing investigation of alleged illegal hiring practices in various state agencies to the U. S. Department of Justice at the request of U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

In a letter to Madigan, Fitzgerald cited the problems inherent in overlapping investigations in making his request that Madigan merge her investigation into his.

“We are coordinating with the U. S. Attorney to avoid the potential for inadvertent interference with each other’s investigations,” Madigan said. “My top priority is that these matters are thoroughly and professionally investigated, and I am confident that will be the result of this agreement.”

Fitzgerald praised the professionalism of Madigan’s office and her contributions to the investigation. Madigan’s office released Fitzgerald’s letter today but could not comment further on this or other ongoing investigations.

I’ll post Fitzgerald’s letter in a minute or so.

UPDATE: The pdf file was too huge to post without needlessly chewing up bandwidth (I think because of the redactions) , so Click here for page one of Fitzgerald’s letter. Page 2 is here. (jpg files)

UPDATE 2: Fitzgerald’s letter to Madigan claims that the federal investigation currently includes:

…the alleged rigging of state employment practices to enable political hiring in violation of Rutan and include, among other things, the preparation of fraudulent hiring documentation. Our investigation has implicated multiple state agencies and departments and we have developed a number of credible witnesses.

[Emphasis added]

UPDATE 3: Fitzgerald goes on to discuss Madigan’s investigation.

While we were conducting our investigation [Redacted by the government] in November 2005 your office independently also obtained information concerning fraudulent hiring practices at two state agencies and commenced an investigation of those allegations.

Additionally, we understand that your office has begun its investigation of the allegations [Redacted by the government] which you believe would cause a broadening of your existing investigation to other state agencies.

[Emphasis added]

UPDATE 4: ArchPundit makes a very good point in comments:

It sounds more like tests were being rigged instead of just preferring political allies over non-allies once they got in the pool. Worse, to do so requires a conspiracy–and that this includes essentially all Executive Agencies, a wide ranging conspiracy and could even provide enough for RICO predicates.

UPDATE 5: A very brief AP story is up:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration is the focus of an ongoing federal investigation that has “implicated multiple state agencies” in allegations of corrupt hiring, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has confirmed.

Fitzgerald said his investigation has yielded credible witnesses related to “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud.”

[Emphasis added]

UPDATE 6: The AP now has a longer story posted.

Fitzgerald approved releasing the letter to the public, said Madigan spokeswoman Melissa Merz, and Madigan has agreed to drop her investigations. Merz would not comment further.

This is the first time Fitzgerald has said he is investigating the administration, although Blagojevich has acknowledged his agencies and some of his high-ranking aides were being scrutinized. […]

Fitzgerald’s letter says his office began investigating Blagojevich about a year ago and opened another investigation - which has now been merged with the first - late last summer. […]

Fitzgerald said his investigation and Madigan’s probe of similar allegations might conflict. He asks Madigan to suspend her probe because “the most important consideration for both our offices is that the very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud be thoroughly and expeditiously investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted.”

UPDATE 7: Statement from the Blagojevich office:

Statement from Abby Ottenhoff, Spokesperson for Gov. Blagojevich on letter released today by Attorney General Madigan:

“When we came into office we began to reform a system that was difficult to change. Under immense pressure to pad the payroll, we instead cut it by more than 13,000. With that said, we did have to hire people to help run state government. Among those we hired there were some bad apples who violated the rules. The systems we put in place in our first year helped ferret out this wrongdoing. We insisted on an independent Inspector General for precisely this purpose. We’ve acted on those IG recommendations up to and including termination, and where appropriate, referred them to the US Attorney for criminal investigation. We will continue pursuing those who would break the rules.”

So, a few “bad apples” are responsible for “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud“? Hardly. This statement tells us nothing, as usual.

UPDATE 8: The AP has transcribed the Fitzgerald letter from the original pdf format and posted it online in a more readable, quotable format.

UPDATE 9: The governor was in the Peoria area today. He was supposed to arrive about 2:30, less than an hour after this story broke. So far, there’s nothing online yet except this WMBD story about him touting All Kids. I fear the story may have broken too late for the locals to figure out what was going on and ask him about it.

UPDATE 10: Notice in “Update 7″ how the Blagojevich press release talks about referring cases to the US Attorney’s office and diligently rooting out corruption and cooperating with law enforcement?

Also, notice Patrick Fitzgerald’s praise for AG Lisa Madigan’s investigative work in his letter.

We recognize that significant effort was expended by your office concerning allegedly illegal hiring activities, and appreciate the professionalism of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General […]

On a personal note, I know that you have committed significant resources to the efforts to investigate public corruption and have assigned particularly talented attorneys to that effort. I appreciate the approach you have taken in this matter, and will be cognizant, as you suggest, that if we determine that there is criminal conduct which cannot be reached by federal prosecution and for which there is the possibility of state action, to make that information immediately available to you where appropriate. And while I know that you expect nothing more than that my office and the FBI conduct the federal investigation professionally and expeditiously, please be assured that when the circumstances of the investigation permits, I hope to publicly recognize the contribution of your office.

My point is, where’s the letter from US Attorney Fitzgerald praising the governor’s efforts to root out corruption? If he doesn’t have one, and can’t get one, then what does that say about the governor’s press release? Do they understand how much they insult our intelligence and do they enjoy it?

UPDATE 11: “Fitz of July” or “4th of July Fitzworks”? Which do you prefer? Got any others? (”Fitzmas in July” has been suggested in comments.)

UPDATE 12: Tribune:

Fitzgerald’s comments, contained in a letter he wrote June 20 to Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, represent the clearest explanation to date of the efforts by federal prosecutors to examine potential wrongdoing within the state’s hiring system.