Reporting with Natasha Korecki
The defense has introduced its first tape -- a brief, maybe 20-second recording of Robert Blagojevich talking with his brother's general counsel, Bill Quinlan.
The tape got off to a rocky start. Someone pressed play on the wrong tape, leading defense attorney Michael Ettinger to yell, "Stop! Stop! stop!"
With the tape up and running, Robert is heard discussing the importance of keeping fund-raising and policy separate.
"One thing I've learned is you don't let the campaign guy do government," Quinlan tells Robert. "You just don't." Robert agrees.
Earlier, Ettinger asked Robert if he earned a salary while working for Friends of Blagojevich for four months in fall 2008. Robert said he did.
"And what did you do with 65 to 70 percent" of that salary, Ettinger asked?
"Gave it to charity," Robert said, earning an objection. The judge sustained.
Ettinger hen turns to another question: whether Robert was privy to conversations with Rod and his advisers about how to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Ettinger: "Did you ever talk to any of his advisers -- Knapp, Yang, Scofield, Greenlee, so on -- about the Senate seat and what your brother was going to do?"
Robert: "No, I don't recall those."
Ettinger: "Did you have any input into (who he was going to pick)?"
Robert: "No."
It sounds like the prosecution is giving the key players like Wyma and Greenlee a pass and going after the intern...It's pretty apparent that the proseuction used Robert as an negotiating tool to get Milorad to bend...It looks a lot more sinister than pay to play, cop a deal or we hang your brother...and to add insult to injury they give Wyma immunity when he tipped off Emanuel and Chase.