Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Hamilton is about 30 minutes into her opening statement, which is expected to take an hour.
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.
She has returned to that phrase several times in describing each of the shakedowns:
"The answer, in this case, was a $25,000 campaign contribution" ... "The answer, in this case, was a $500,000 campaign contribution." ... etc.
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