"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.

The shakedown didn't happen, she said -- "not because he didn't want it to happen, but because his middleman refused to carry it out.