* The prosecutors have identified a motive for Rod Blagojevich’s frantic efforts to sell the US Senate seat. He was deeply in hock…
[Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Hamilton] said Blagojevich’s $170,000 per year salary was not enough to cover the debt Blagojevich and his wife were incurring.
Hamilton said the money from Rezko took care of some of it, but Blagojevich and his wife were approximately $200,000 in debt in fall 2008.
The prosecution said naming Obama’s Senate seat replacement was the key to solving Blagojevich’s financial troubles and what his next career move would be.
More…
[Hamilton] showed jurors a chart of the family’s debts in the fall of 2008 - $200,000 in “consumer debt and lines of credit against their home,” she said.
Rod Blagojevich didn’t know how to fix his money troubles, Hamilton said. He didn’t even know if he was going to run for governor again.
“He had no career plans for what he was going to do and no plans of what he was going to do with this financial situation,” she told the jury.
“For Governor Blagojevich, his golden ticket arrived on Nov. 4, 2008,” she said. That’s the day Barack Obama was elected president, giving Blagojevich sole rights to replace him in the Senate.
* Some other reports from the Sun-Times…
Rod Blagojevich furiously took notes as Hamilton spoke, but at times stopped dead and stared as she leveled accusation after accusation of the various shakedowns.
Hamilton spoke emphatically, sometimes pushing her fingers together, sometimes pointing in the air as she explained the case.
AUSA Hamilton opened her comments with the worst thing Blagojevich is accused of doing…
“On the North Side of Chicago is a hospital named Children’s Memorial Hospital.” […]
“In 2008, Children’s Memorial was trying to get a grant to treat sick kids,” she continued in a slow, clear voice. But before Blagojevich would allow that grant, she said, he demanded something in return.”
“But there was a catch,” Hamilton said. “Now that he had decided to help the hospital, he wanted to make sure the hospital was going to help him.”
“Blagojevich decided if the hospital president wasn’t going to help him, he wasn’t going to help the hospital.”
“This was just one in series of illegal shakedowns that started shortly after Gov. Rod Blagojevich became governor of Illinois in 2000 and continued until he was arrested in 2008.”
More…
“You’re going to hear about a shakedown that happened just before the election, this time involving a school,” she told the jury.
In a clear and almost cheerful voice, she is describing the accusations that Blagojevich held up a grant for the school in then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel’s in an attempt to get the congressman’s brother to hold a fundraiser for him.
“Rather than paying out the money as it should have been, defendant Blagojevich demanded that the money be paid out slowly, over time,” she said.
“One of the things you’re going to learn in this trial is that money is power,” she said.
More…
“It wasn’t that (Blagojevich) would go out and do it himself,” she says, “Instead the demand was made by a middleman for his benefit. The middlemen that were used were Lon Monk, Chris Harris and Tony Rezko.”
She is referring to that foursome as the “inner circle.”
She is also introducing the jury to the Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund.
“Part of the plan was to try to build up that campaign fund,” she said. “They knew the more money in that campaign fund, the more money Blagojevich could yield and the more they could personally benefit from decisions he was making.”
More…
In her overview of the charges against ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, she is using a phrase consistently throughout — “What about me?”
In each of the alleged shakedowns, she says, Blagojevich was thinking about himself.
“In those instances when he was supposed to be asking, ‘What about the people of Illinois?’ he was asking ‘What about me?’” Hamilton said early in her statement.
…Adding… The best way to follow along with the action live is to monitor Natasha Korecki’s and Susan Berger’s Twitter pages. Also #Blagojevich tag on Twitter, but that’s pretty clogged with reTweets of Natasha’s stuff.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Chasse Rehwinkel’s Twitter page, we have the beginning of Sam Adam Jr’s statement…
‘rod was broke!’ ‘he didnt take a dime’ […]
Adams tells the jury to ‘follow the money’ because blago didnt recieve a dime. […]
Rezko the ‘bernie madoff of chicago’
Adam paints blago as just another victim of rezko trying to scam people in order to save his failing papa johns returants
Adam states ‘this trial is rod’s fault’ because ‘he trusted the wrong person’
And this…
Lon monk becomes blago’s chief of staff, according to adam, because blago didnt know anyone in politics and he trusted monk
Yeah, right.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sun-Times…
“He’s broke! He’s broke!” Adam yelled. “And do you know why he’s broke, ladies and gentlemen? It’s not hard. He didn’t take a dime!”
Adam is animated, to say the least. He is whispering and yelling, putting his hands over his stomach, putting them into and out his pockets, pointing at the jurors, Rod, the prosecutors. He’s covering much ground, walking up to the witness stand, back to the defense table.
“This is the federal government,” he said. “The same people chasing Bin Laden are chasing him!”
Rod is not writing anymore. He is sitting with his hands folded.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Adam is reined in…
Hamilton objects to adam’s statements twice. Both objections sustained.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Sun-Times…
Sam Adam Jr. is painting a lot of people as villains in the Blagojevich saga — Tony Rezko, Alonzo “Lon” Monk and now Stuart Levine.
But in the process, he’s managed to work in references to peacocks and a “specialized gynecologist.”
Perhaps that’s the “26th and Cal” style he’s so known for.
Now Adam is saying that Rod Blagojevich turned federal investigators on`to Rezko, leading to the former fundraiser’s conviction on corruption charges.
Blago would never do such a thing if he were in cahoots with the man, Adam said.
Adam is now finished. The trial resumes tomorrow morning at 9:30.
*** UPDATE 5 *** Another judicial rebuke…
Zagel tells Adam if he yells at a witness like he did in his opening there will be consequences
*** UPDATE 6 *** Sam Adam Jr., Unplugged…
On Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial victory:
“In a state that is basically Irish, a Serbian won.”
On Blagojevich taking the stand:
“He’s not going to let some chubby four-eyed lawyer talk for him.”
On Blagojevich’s psychology:
“He is probably one of the most insecure men you are going to see.”
On the U.S. Attorney’s office case against Blagojevich:
“The same people chasing Bin Laden are chasing him.”
* Resources for following the trial are now in a pull-down menu on the right side of the page, so today will be the last day I post them here…
Capitol Fax coverage
Who’s Who
Google News
#Blagojevich on Twitter
Sun-Times live-blog
Sun-Times Tweets
Chasse Rehwinkel Tweets
Susan Berger Tweets
Tribune live-blog
CNC live-blog
AP Tweets
Rod Blagojevich’s Tweets
Patti Blagojevich’s Tweets
RodBlagojevich.com
