On CNN within the last hour, Wolf Biltzer slipped in some interesting and potentially important news about what federal prosecutors might and might not have on Jesse Jackson Jr., who today was all but confirmed by his lawyer to be Senate Candidate 5.
Talking to legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, Blitzer said that according to law enforcement sources, Pat Fitzgerald’s office does not have recordings of Jackson himself speaking to Rod Blagojevich as part of the US Attorney’s investigation into the governor.
If true, that would be significant, because the indictment filed yesterday against the governor quotes him telling an aide that an “emissary” from Jackson approached the governor and proposed a “pay-to-play” deal in regard to the open US Seante seat that Blagojevich has the power to fill.
If Fitzgerald doesn’t have evidence of Jackson himself talking about any such deal, it would appear to lessen the chances that Jackson will be charged.
Of course, there are some caveats here. We’ve been unable to get more details on Blitzer’s report, and haven’t seen it corroborated elsewhere.
And even if true, Blitzer’s report doesn’t exlcude the possibility that Fitzgerald has a recording of an aide to Jackson — perhaps the “emissary” to whom Blagojevich referred — talking about the alleged deal.
Still, this is worth trying to learn more about…