He’s been undercut again…

Robert Blagojevich and prosecutor Chris Niewoehner are entrenched in a long back-and-forth over Robert’s phone records on Dec. 4, 2008, the day of a key phone call between Rod and Robert about the Senate seat appointment.

Niewoehner is going over a list of attempted phone calls in harrowing detail. He puts up a chart that Robert’s lawyer originally published that details all the calls made that day.

It’s a long list. Robert tried to reach his brother over and over again, to no avail, sometimes more than once per minute. When that didn’t work, he repeatedly tried to reach the governor’s scheduler.

Robert gets irritated at the questioning. “I concede,” he says repeatedly, as the prosecutor tries to get him to acknowledge each call one by one. “Let’s not waste time.”

Robert’s lawyers originally showed jurors the list to show that Robert was annoyed — and not thinking straight — at a Starbucks, when Rod finally reached him and told him to elevate Jesse Jackson Jr.

But prosecutors are trying to show that Robert was, in fact, actively trying to get a hold of the ex-governor that day — suggesting maybe he wasn’t as distracted as he said when the two had that critical conversation about Jackson.

[ *** End of Update *** ]

* Rod Blagojevich may testify today. As always, keep a close eye on the Sun-Times’ excellent Blago Blog for updates.

* I’ve noticed that a lot of commenters have quite a bit of sympathy for Robert Blagojevich, with some even saying they think he’ll be acquitted. Mark Brown was one of those until cross-examination yesterday. Robert had said over and over that he did everything possible to keep fundraising and government apart. But the prosecution undercut his credibility in a big way yesterday…

And then it all blew up in Robert Blagojevich’s face in just the first 15 minutes of cross-examination by federal prosecutor Chris Niewoehner as the former chairman of Friends of Blagojevich was left trying to explain a previously unheard conversation in which he counseled brother Rod to conduct “horse trading” with then President-elect Barack Obama to kill the federal criminal investigation of his administration.

The Nov. 5, 2008, discussion came one day after the presidential election at a time the Blagojeviches already knew Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett as his replacement but a month before the governor’s arrest when the full extent of the investigation would become known.

“If you can get Obama to get [U.S. Attorney Patrick] Fitzgerald to close the investigation on you, it completely provides you with total clarity,” Robert Blagojevich was quoted as telling Rod in a transcript read by Niewoehner, suggesting this as a more realistic gambit than angling for a Cabinet appointment. […]

There was no crime committed in this discussion, which is why we hadn’t heard it previously, but the problem for Robert Blagojevich is that it blew a huge hole in his credibility.

One minute he’s testifying about how he’d taken pains to maintain a separation between fund-raising and official government action and fully appreciated the legal ramifications, and the next minute he’s defending the idea of political interference in a federal corruption probe.

* For Phil Kadner, the moment he believed that Robert lost credibility was during a conversation about appointing Jesse Jackson, Jr. to the US Senate…

Back to the offer of campaign cash for the appointment of Jesse Jackson Jr. to the Senate.

For hours, Robert Blagojevich tried to convince the jury that he was kept in the dark about the behind-the-scenes politics.

He said he made no offers of anything in return for contributions to “Friends of Blagojevich.” If deals were being cut, he was unaware of them.

And then Ettinger had him go through a crucial conversation with his brother that occurred over the phone while Robert was at a Starbucks with his wife.

It was one of the few times the couple had gone out together, and Robert explained he was quite irritated that his brother was bothering him with political talk.

“Right,” Robert said over and over again.

But then the governor says he may appoint Jackson to the Senate seat after all, to stick it to the folks in Washington, D.C., who have been sticking it to him. He tells his brother to talk to the people who offered money for the Jackson appointment.

They key word is “if” he appoints Jackson, Robert said, what would they be willing to do. Robert says he will phone them.

The governor says not to use the phone when doing so. The whole world may be listening, he warns. Talk to them in person.

What did this mean?

Robert seemed to take it to mean that personal contact was always better than a phone call. Nothing more than that.

I don’t know what the jury thought, but I thought Robert’s credibility vanished with that statement.

Yeah. Good point. Remember Goodfellas?…

Paulie hated phones. He wouldn’t have one in his house. He got all his calls second hand. Then you’d have to call the people back. There were guys, that’s all they did all day, was take care of Paulie’s calls.

* But this was a good comeback today…

Robert Blagojevich testifies that when he asked Children’s Memorial Hospital CEO Patrick Magoon to host a fund-raiser in fall 2008, it was not in exchange for pending government action that would have increased reimbursement rate for the hospital.

Instead, Magoon was merely a name on a list of prior contributors that Robert Blagojevich was trying to hit up for campaign cash, he testifies.

Robert said he was given the list of names by his predecessor at Friends of Blagojevich, and it contained only donor names and phone numbers — no amounts.

“(Magoon), like many others, was a previous contributor,” Robert Blagojevich testifies. Magoon said on the stand last week that he had given several $1,000 contributions to the governor. “To me, they were all the same, just names and numbers of people to call who were previous contributors.”

“It wasn’t your practice to go through the list and find people who had given at most $1,000 and then go ask them to hold a $25,000 fund-raiser?” prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asks. “Because it wouldn’t make sense to suddenly ask people to give 25 times more than they’d given before, would it?”

Robert Blagojevich argues that asking someone to hold a fund-raiser is different than asking them directly for cash.

“I think that’s a real difference,” Robert testifies. “I didn’t ask him for a contribution, I asked him to host a fund-raiser. If he wanted to.”

* Roundup…

* Offer of $6 million made for Jackson as senator

* Robert Blagojevich: $6 million offer from Jackson camp

* Blagojevich expected to testify after his brother

* Rod Blagojevich is taking the stand — and big risk

* Time for Rod Blagojevich to take stand

* Potential benefits, pitfalls to Blagojevich taking stand

* Rod Blagojevich to Take the Stand Today Following Yesterday’s Testimony from Rob Blagojevich

* Blago to Take Stand: Will He Give ‘Performance of His Life’?

* Blago Expected to Take Stand Today

* Laying Down The Law

* Blago Prosecution Fights for Jury Anonymity: The U.S. Attorney’s office also referenced instances of people with no ties to the trial attempting to involve themselves in it. The government noted one incident — which largely flew under the radar — involving a woman named Tynetta Muturi, who was arrested and charged with criminal contempt of court on June 23 after trying to enter the courtroom against deputy marshals’ orders. Muturi, who was sentenced to one year of probation, had previously filed documents seeking $10 billion and, according to the motion, “the release of certain files relating to an investigation into the theft and sale of her grandchildren, which documents were allegedly taken from defendant Rod Blagojevich’s office by the government in the course of its investigation of the charged offenses.”

* Blago Defense Lawyer: Ex-Gov ‘Runs the Show’

* Blagojevich on secret tapes: Here are the tapes

* Blagojevich trial transcripts for Monday, plain text version