*** UPDATE 1 - 1:52 pm *** Former chief of staff John Harris destroys Rod Blagojevich’s alibi that he wanted to appoint Lisa Madigan to the vacant US Senate seat in order to pass the long-stalled capital bill and his healthcare reforms…

Harris and Rod are heard discussing leaking a potential Lisa Madigan appointment to Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.

John Harris explains from the stand: “Michael Sneed is a woman who writes a political gossip column for a local paper — a page that a lot of politicians read before the sports.”

Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked, then, if Harris and Rod were talking about leaking “false information” to Sneed.

“Yes,” Harris testified.

*** UPDATE 2 - 3:30 pm *** And there goes the rest of the Lisa alibi…

Prosecutors play yet another tape, this one happened the morning of the presidential election — Nov. 4, 2008.

The senate seat is discussed at length and Rod Blagojevich can be heard talking about making a “tactical play,” involving Lisa Madigan. The play at one point involved pretending he would appoint the Illinois Attorney General to the Senate seat, but really, he’d appoint himself.

The discussion was a strategy session. Blagojevich and Harris were trying to navigate talks with the Obama camp over the senate seat appointment. But they believed Rahm Emanuel and others were acting “cryptic.” They discussed floating other options as real possibilities to force Obama’s camp to talk straight, according to Harris.

Blagojevich on tape: “We need to think about a tactical play…we gotta figure out a Madigan play.”
Blagojevich said they had Illinois Senate President Emil Jones as a “fallback” for an appointment, but “the best he can do for me is raise money.”

Blagojevich also is heard telling Harris maybe they should work the Madigan angle and then: “I end up using my ace in the hole and I send myself.”

[ *** End of Updates *** ]

* They’re doing him in but good. As we learned yesterday, former deputy governor Bradley Tusk helped seal Rod Blagojevich’s coffin…

Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.

Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.

Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”

Former chief of staff John Harris also did him in…

Emanuel wanted to know where the money was; Tusk told Harris that the governor would not approve the release of funds. So, Harris testified, he spoke to the governor.

“He seemed to be familiar with it and told me not to approve the release of funds, that he had not approved the release of funds,” Harris said. […]

Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked if this was the way grant money was usually doled out.

“No, the process was not typical and quite involved,” Harris said. “I didn’t experience that process again.”

More…

Rod Blagojevich told his top aide to cut off two firms, including CitiBank, from state business as retaliation for not giving his wife a job, former chief of staff John Harris has testified. […]

When Harris later learned CitiBank was in line to win a major state deal, he said he purposely kept Blagojevich in the dark.

More…

Former Blago chief of staff John Harris has just given testimony that backs up what Lon Monk told the court earlier this month — that in 2008, Blagojevich was in cahoots with then-state senate Pres. Emil Jones to kill an ethics bill that would have seriously hindered the governor’s fund-raising efforts. […]

“[Blagojevich] thought Emil would hold because he knew something we didn’t,” Harris testified. “He told us that Emil Jones wanted (Barack Obama’s) senate seat” and wouldn’t go back on his “pledge.”

Jones, though, did succumb to political and public pressure and called the bill.

“No way he’s getting the seat now,” Harris said Blagojevich told him.

* The judge is smacking down the defense lawyers on a regular basis now…

It’s getting to the point where [prosecutor Reid Schar] doesn’t even speak to object — he just stands up.

“Objection sustained,” Judge Zagel continues, time after time.

And…

Sam Adam Sr., the storied trial lawyer, ran aground as he asked Johnston about his relationship with deceased fundraiser Chris Kelly.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Zagel said after sustaining another objection from the prosecution.

Adam apologized to the judge and moved on, but Zagel’s impatience with the defense team’s tactics did not let up.

Defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky encountered more than 20 objections during his cross examination of Tusk.

* And I really doubt that this defense tactic will work…

Answering questions from prosecutor Reid Schar, Tusk said that at the start of Blagojevich’s first term, the governor came into the office regularly. But his attendance dropped off within a few months. So when the constitutional deadline for acting on legislation drew near, Tusk said, he sometimes had to track Blagojevich down to get an answer, one time meeting the governor at his tailor’s. Other times, Tusk said, he just couldn’t get a hold of his boss, and had to personally decide whether to sign a bill or veto it.

Seeming to respond to this testimony, Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky described Blagojevich as a “big picture guy and not a nitty-gritty detail guy,” an observation Tusk agreed with. This makes the point to the jury that Blagojevich left these “detail[s]” (like which bills to sign, apparently) to his aide. That, in turn, furthers a defense that Sorosky acknowledged in open court earlier Monday: that bad acts may have been committed by some people in the governor’s office, but not by the governor himself. “That undoubtedly is a substantial potion of the defense,” Sorosky told Judge James Zagel.

The reason it won’t work is simple. Rod wasn’t much of a governor, but the tapes clearly show that he was intimately involved with all sorts of nefarious details and was actually leading the parade.

* Related…

* Patti drops suit over remarks about e-mail list

* Patti Blagojevich drops defamation lawsuit

* Ex-aide: Blaojevich told me to shake down Rahm

* Ex-aide: Blagojevich sought to pressure Emanuel

* Emanuel defended Blagojevich, then sought grant

* Documents: Emanuel tried to swap favors with Blagojevich

* Another Blagojevich Chief of Staff Takes the Stand

* Tusk Details Blagojevich’s Emanuel Ultimatum

* Track owner recalls alleged shakedown for Blagojevich donation

* Blagojevich witness says he was victim of shakedown

* Key prosecution witness on stand on Blago trial

* Key wiretaps could be played today in Blago trial

* Blagojevich trial: Day 12 — tapes today — and recap

* Taming the Blagojevich Trial Circus

* The same defense with a new ‘do