I SO want to know who this is. From the criminal complaint:
Just last week, on December 4, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor that he might “get some
(money) up front, maybe” from Senate Candidate 5, if he named Senate Candidate 5 to the Senate seat, to insure that Senate Candidate 5 kept a promise about raising money for Blagojevich if he ran for re-election. In a recorded conversation on October 31, Blagojevich claimed he was approached by an associate of Senate Candidate 5 as follows: “We were approached ‘pay to play.’ That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him (Senate Candidate 5) a Senator.
More of the complaint, this is just truly remarkable:
Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being “stuck” as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public 7
office; facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he
decide to leave public office.
4 comments:
Senate Candidate #5 seems like a typical Illinois insider, and not an Obamaian at least.
In this below section, I think #1 is Valerie Jarrett:
Per the indictment:
"Later on November 3, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with Advisor A. By this time, media reports indicated that Senate Candidate 1, an advisor to the President elect,
was interested in the Senate seat if it became vacant, and was likely to be supported by the President-elect. During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated, “unless I get something real good for [Senate Candidate 1], shit, I’ll just send myself, you know what I’m saying.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH later stated, “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying. And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself.” Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that the Senate seat “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”
It certainly seems like there are no ties between Blago and Obama if Blago was looking at ways to blackmail Obama to get what he wanted. If senate candidate 1 was Valerie Jarrett, and Blago was saying in exchange for appointing her there better be some quid pro quo coming back to him, then I'm guessing the Obama camp told Patrick Fitzgerald to unleash the freaking hounds.
that complaint is the best thing i've read in a long time. so many juicy details!
Holy crap!!! I've been in meetings all morning and completely missed this. This is huge! I can't even process this.
I can't even believe all these charges and just when Sassy was starting to slow down!
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