Dick Cheney

Cheney: Sending Wilson To Niger Was "Amateur Hour" At The CIA

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2009, 5:28PM

Dick Cheney told FBI investigators that his response to hearing that Joe Wilson had been sent to Niger to assess whether Saddam had tried to buy yellow-cake was that it was "amateur hour" at the CIA.

That's according to a summary of the FBI's interview with Cheney, which was conducted as part of Pat Fitzgerald's investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's name. The document was just released by the Justice Department, thanks to a lawsuit by CREW.

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Rod Blagojevich

Judge: Blago Trial Won't Start For Two Years

Zachary Roth | April 16, 2009, 1:47PM

Those of you eager to see Blago getting his day in court may be waiting a long time.

At a hearing today, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said that the former Illinois governor's trial "will take six months, and likely will not begin for two years," reports CBS.

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Pat Fitzgerald

Feds: Blago Tried To Shake Down Rahm

Zachary Roth | April 3, 2009, 4:23PM

One of the more interesting new details in the Blagojevich indictment was the allegation that the former Illinois governor held up the state funds for a publicly supported school, in an effort to pressure an unnamed congressman who supported the school to have his brother hold a fundraiser for Blago.

Who, we wondered, was the congressman? And who was his brother?

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Pat Fitzgerald

Feds Pull Out RICO On Blago, Team

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 6:42PM

The indictment of Rod Blagojevich and his associates includes one RICO conspiracy count. From the DOJ's press release:

The RICO conspiracy count alleges that Blagojevich personally, the Office of the Governor of Illinois and Friends of Blagojevich were associated and, together, constituted the "Blagojevich Enterprise," whose primary purpose was to exercise and preserve power over Illinois government for the financial and political benefit of Blagojevich, both directly and through Friends of Blagojevich, and for the financial benefit of his family members and associates. Blagojevich and Kelly, the only RICO conspiracy defendants, allegedly conspired with Monk, Cellini, Harris, Robert Blagojevich, Rezko and previously convicted cooperating defendant Stuart Levine, to conduct the Blagojevich Enterprise through a pattern of multiple acts of mail and wire fraud, extortion, attempted extortion and extortion conspiracy, and state bribery.

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Pat Fitzgerald

Feds: Blago And Cronies Were Scheming To Make Money From The Start

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 6:18PM

Here are the major new allegations contained in the indictment of Rod Blagojevich, his brother Robert Blagojevich, and four associates (from a very detailed DOJ press release (pdf)):

[B]eginning in 2002 and continuing after Blagojevich was first elected governor, Blagojevich and Monk, along with Kelly and previously convicted co-schemer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, agreed that they would use the offices of governor and chief of staff for financial gain, which would be divided among them with the understanding that the money would be distributed after Blagojevich left public office.

And:

[I]n 2003, Blagojevich, Monk, Kelly, Rezko and other co-schemers implemented this agreement by directing lucrative state business relating to the refinancing of billions of dollars in State of Illinois Pension Obligation Bonds to a company whose lobbyist agreed to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Rezko out of the fee the lobbyist would collect, and Rezko in turn agreed to split the money with Blagojevich, Monk and Kelly.

And:

After it became public that Kelly and Rezko were under investigation and ceased playing a significant role in raising campaign funds, Blagojevich personally continued to trade his actions as governor for personal benefits, including, for example, delaying a state grant to a publicly-supported school while trying to leverage a U.S. Congressman, who supported the school, or the Congressman's brother, to hold a campaign fundraiser for Blagojevich.

And:

[I]n an interview on March 16, 2005, Blagojevich lied to FBI agents when he said that he maintains a separation, or firewall, between politics and state business; and he does not track, or want to know, who contributes to him or how much they are contributing to him.

Rod Blagojevich

Blagojevich Indicted

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 6:06PM

Chicago Breaking News Center reports:

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced.

Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades.

Will bring you more from the indictment itself...

Pat Fitzgerald

Report: Fitzgerald To Stay On

Zachary Roth | February 10, 2009, 6:30PM

When a new president comes in, he usually replaces all 93 US attorneys with his own nominees. But, in what could be bad news for Rod Blagojevich, at least one high-profile US Attorney won't be asked to step down, it looks like.

NBC News reports that Patrick Fitzgerald, the no-nonsense U.S. attorney for Chicago, will stay on under President Obama, despite being a Bush appointee.

Fitzgerald is preparing an indictment against the former Illinois governor. He also served as the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak case, in which Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury.

The new administration has asked all the US the current Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys to stay on in the short term, while it decides which to retain. But it has already made a decision on Fitzgerald, it appears.

The suggestion to keep Fitz, who has been in the job since 2001, was made by Sen. Dick Durbin, who's close to Obama. Durbin's suggestion was "positively received," according to DOJ officials, as well as aides to Durbin.

The decision is not unexpected, since replacing Fitzgerald while he's in the midst of a high-profile and long-running probe of his state's former governor, would likely have generated an outcry.

Rod Blagojevich

Fitzgerald Asks For Extension On Blago Indictment

Zachary Roth | December 31, 2008, 12:43PM

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked for a 90-day extension to bring an indictment against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

In a motion filed today in U.S. District Court, Fitzgerald said that the length, scope, and complexity of the investigation, combined with the intrusion of the holiday season, has prevented him from meeting the January 7 deadline. The probe, writes the prosecutor, began in 2003 and "involves multiple potential defendants" and thousands of intercepted phone calls.

The move means that we likely won't learn much more from Fitzgerald about Blagojevich's alleged crimes until at least March. So speculation is likely to continue.

We'll have the motion for you soon...

Late Update: Here it is.

Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jackson Has Been Talking To Feds About Blagojevich Since The Summer

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2008, 4:00PM

Looks like Jesse Jackson has been cooperating with Pat Fitzgerald's probe of Rod Blagojevich for longer than we knew.

The Associated Press reports:

A spokesman for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. tells The Associated Press the congressman has been talking to federal investigators about his dealings with Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY'-uh-vich) since summertime.

Spokesman Rick Bryant wouldn't give details of those discussions Tuesday morning.

But a report from WLS-TV in Chicago cites unidentified sources as saying Jackson has told investigators Blagojevich wouldn't appoint Jackson's wife as state lottery director because Jackson wouldn't donate $25,000 to the governor's campaign fund.

Jackson has admitted to being "Senate Candidate 5" identified in the charging document against the Illinois governor. Blagojevich says in a recorded conversation that an "emissary" from Candidate 5 proposed a "pay to play" deal for Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Late update: In fact, Jackson's cooperation may have gone on for much longer than that. CNN reports:

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has served as an informant to the U.S. attorney's office in Illinois, two sources close to Jackson tell CNN.

Jackson has served as an informant for more than a decade and has relayed information relating to embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich since 2006, the sources said.

Jesse Jackson Jr.

Blitzer: Fitz Doesn't Have Jackson On Tape

Zachary Roth | December 10, 2008, 5:25PM

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...

Barack Obama

Fitzgerald: "The Conduct Would Make Lincoln Roll Over In His Grave"

Zachary Roth | December 9, 2008, 12:25PM

At a press conference to announce the charges against Blagojevich, Pat Fitzgerald said:

But the most cynical behavior in all this -- the most appalling -- is the fact that Governor Blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Obama. The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.

Here's the video:

It's good to have America's favorite prosecutor back on the scene.