Reporting with Lark Turner
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich stopped to give a rebuttal to his own defense witness on his way out of the courthouse moments ago.
"With regard to that other thing about Elvis, all I can tell you is that it's absurd, it's not true, it didn't happen," Blagojevich said of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. testifying this morning that Blagojevich once tried extorting him for $25,000 in exchange for an offer to appoint Jackson's wife, Sandi, to the Illinois Lottery.
Blagojevich, though, held up other statements by Jackson as accurate.
That included Jackson's testimony that the two of them never discussed fund-raising in late 2008 as Jackson sought the Senate seat appointment.
"That was exactly right and that is accurate," Blagojevich said. "Goes to the heart of how I never asked for campaign funds in exchange for the Senate seat."
Court is still in session, with attorneys hashing out recordings. But Blagojevich has left for the day.
Seriously, do you know what extortion is? It's NOT what JJJ testified to. Extortion is when you try to get someone to give you something in exchange for something else. JJJ's testimony was that 1) He was asked to give 25k to Blago's campaign to help a Democrat become govenor (perfectly legal). 2) He said no 3) after Blago elected his wife became interested in a job 3) Later Blago told JJJ his wife didn't get the job because he didn't contribute.
Since JJJ himself essentially testified he was offered NOTHING in exchange for the 25k this was NOT extortion. It was Blago saying "I would have commited a crime IF you'd acted differently."
That's not extortion. It's just being an idiot for saying it.