Jurors are now hearing a Nov. 11, 2008 tape in which the ex-governor complains about a message that John Wyma sent to him through Rahm Emanuel. The message: that Blagojevich could expect "gratitude and appreciation" for a Valerie Jarrett appointment.
"How about a 501(c)(4) so I can advocate child's health care?," Blago complains on a call to Doug Scofield, adding that he'd like that nonprofit set up "right away."
Blagojevich wonders about appointing billionaire J.B. Pritzker to the seat, in exchange for a chunk of Pritzker money in that 501(c)(4).
"If I can get J.B. to do something like that, is it worth giving him the Senate seat?" Blago asks Scofield, who says such a prospect seems difficult.
"If I get nothing back from Obama, then I'm going another direction," Blagojevich says."You agree with that, don't you?"
"I do," Scofield said.
Also in this call: More Blago musings about the benefits of appointing former deputy governor (and potential seat-holder, in case he's impeached) Louanner Peters.
Judge James Zagel has called a lunch break. We'll be back at 1:30.
Rod Blagojevich and his staff have twice today been heard talking about leaking faulty information to the media -- information they believed would give them more leverage in their alleged negotiations over the Senate seat appointment, Doug Scofield said.
First, Scofield testified that Blagojevich asked him one day about an item that had run in Michael Sneed's Sun-Times column that said Lisa Madigan was a strong candidate for the Senate seat.
That item had been "placed" by Blago's camp, Scofield said.
Later, Scofield mentioned another Blago leak to Michael Sneed -- this time, that Jesse Jackson Jr. was a lead contender.
Blagojevich is heard saying he talked to "the Jacksons" over the weekend and wants Scofield to tell Balanoff that Jesse Jackson Jr. is a prospect again.
"I over-promised on Jesse Jr. ... He's in the mix all of a sudden, OK?" Blagojevich says, giggling.
"Joe Stroud was part of it. I'll tell you when I see you," he says. "I'm not ruling him out."
Later on the tape, Blagojevich is amazed Obama's camp won't play ball with him:]. "The arrogance of these f------ people," he says.
Blago is also heard asking about a corporate board placement for his wife, Patti. He mentions that Michelle Obama sat on several such boards.
"Why can't we get Patti on a couple of those?" he asks.
In the courtroom, prosecutor Reid Schar asks Doug Scofield what he thought of these ideas.
"It seemed absurd to me," Scofield said. "The idea of being on the Cabinet seemed entirely unlikely. The idea of a corporate board seemed entirely unlikely."
"He can be difficult," Scofield said, speaking of his working relationship with the ex-governor. If people angered him, they could be "treated poorly, cut off," he testified.
On the next tape, Rod Blagojevich is on a conference call with his advisers, and they're telling him to appoint Valerie Jarrett for nothing.
"They all leave town and I'm stuck with gridlock ... impeachment ... and a f------ president who's all talk and no give?" Blagojevich is heard saying. "That's what you're recommending to me, Doug?"
Adviser Doug Sosnik: "Yes."
Blago seems to shrug off advice that getting just "good will" from the president may not be such a bad deal.
Doug Scofield testifies about talk of the cabinet position being discussed by Tom Balanoff and Valerie Jarrett.
Scofield said he was discussing the prospect with union member Jerry Morrison, who was skeptical.
"The president-elect and the people around the president-elect wanted to get away from Chicago politics," Scofied testified.
That set up a call where Blagojevich is heard equating Chicago politics with Tony Rezko, whose relationship with Obama had been an issue in the presidential campaign.
"She's holding hers with two hands ... sort of clinging to it. Me, I've got the whole thing wrapped around my arms," Blagojevich is heard saying about Jarrett and the Senate seat.
The courtroom grows quiet during this portion of the recording -- a snippet that had been revealed previously in government documents.
The prosecution started the day by playing the rest of the "f-ing golden" conversation between Rod Blagojevich and his onetime deputy governor, Doug Scofield.
It's the day after Election Day 2008, and Blago's jealousy over Obama winning the presidency is ringing through loud and clear on the tape.
"There's nothing I could have done about Obama," Blago is heard saying. Scofield explains from the stand that the governor was saying there was nothing he could have done to prevented Obama's success.
Blagojevich is heard saying he needs to try to take this "bad thing" and make it into something good.
"Look, I'm better off with this guy than McCain," he is heard saying. "With my upward mobility it doesn't look so good ... but it's a funny business."
From the stand, Scofield said he and Blagojevich had had "many conversations like this," and that Blago had "a level of jealousy and anger" regarding Obama's win.
Scofield began describing a conference call held later that day to plan a press conference about the Senate seat appointment. On that call, Blago and his advisers discussed floating health care as a priority in choosing a Senate successor -- that way, Scofield said from the stand, Blago could inevitably point to his own health care record and appoint himself.
Judge James Zagel then called a recess to deal with sound issues in the overflow courtroom. Technicians are working, but the proceedings remain inaudible.
Upstairs, on the 25th floor, the courtroom is packed.
Today in court, the defense asked to introduce a new recording in which Blago was heard talking about appointing Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.
The government objected, and the tape was played for the judge's consideration with the jury out of the room. Zagel eventually ruled that the tape may not be played until Blagojevich himself takes the stand.
Before leaving the courthouse Tuesday, Rod Blagojevich stopped in the courthouse lobby to speak to the press.
"For the past six days" -- he may have meant 16, which is the number of days the trial has been going -- "the government has played tapes that they've chosen to play, and as I've said all along for the past year and a half, those tapes show that i have not committed any crimes," he said.
"When my lawyers attempted to play a tape that will begin the process of actually exonerating me, the government objected," he said. "But thank goodness, the judge saved me and made it clear that when I testify, which I will -- and I can't wait to testify, to set the record straight and clarify some of these conversations, and tell the people of Illinois exactly what was on my mind and what i was trying to do and what I ultimately attempted to do ... he'll allow those tapes to be played."
After a break, Prosecutor Reid Schar asked union leader Tom Balanoff, who said his Service Employees International Union supported Rod Blagojevich, whether he would
still support Blagojevich today.
"Would you have endorsed him if you knew what you knew now?" Schar asked.
Balanoff: "No."
Schar, a bit worked up: "Is it fair to say he isn't what you thought he was?"
Objection sustained.
Defense lawyer Sheldon Sorosky crosses Tom Balanoff again. Balanoff says he couldn't think of an issue the union wanted that Blagojevich didn't support.
"So the governor clearly had integrity on supporting the issues of the working people, did he not?" Sorosky asked.
That's sustained.
Sorosky finally asks Balanoff if Blagojevich ever explicitly told him that he wanted a 501 (c) 4 organization in exchange for Jarrett's appointment.
"He never said those exact words," Balanoff said.
Sorosky tries pressing him but doesn't seem to get the answer he was hoping for.
Balanoff: "He said that if he could get $10, $15, $20 million in this 501(c)4, that our Senator Valerie Jarrett could go about her job."
With that, Balanoff's testimony concludes. It was a brisk ending for a major prosecution witness.
Now we are between witnesses where we are listening to a new recording where Rod and Patt Blagojevich discuss the four Senate seat candidates President-Elect Obama had endorsed.
Reporting with Natasha Korecki
SEIU leader Thomas Balanoff, a key witness for the government, has just taken the stand.
Balanoff is expected to testify that Barack Obama called him before the election, giving him the green light to ask Blagojevich to appoint his friend Valerie Jarrett to his U.S. Senate seat.
He's also expected to say that Blagojevich told him he wanted a personal benefit in return for appointing Jarrett.
Early in his testimony, Balanoff says national union leader Andy Stern first raised Valerie Jarrett as a potential Senate successor in September 2008. As early as as October 2008, Stern said he talked to Jarrett and she said she was interested.
Sam Adam asked again to introduce jurors to a new Dec. 4, 2008 tape. The judge sent the jury out of the room and is holding a hearing to determine whether it will be played for the jurors.
On the tape, Blago is heard instructing Harris to call Rahm Emanuel and say the governor is still considering appointing Jesse Jackson Jr. He sounds to be arguing that the threat of a Jackson appointment -- which the Obama administration had opposed -- would help Blago pass a legislative package with House Speaker Mike Madigan.
That is, the new tape implies that the Madigan deal is what Blago really wanted; Jackson was the decoy.
The tape was recorded the day after two top Democratic leaders called Blagojevich, urging him against appointing Jesse Jackson Jr. Blagojevich is heard telling Harris to call Rahm Emanuel and give him the impression that Jackson is still a possibility.
"They don't want him," Blagojevich says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Robert Menendez said of Jackson. "They don't want to say it, but they don't want him, you follow me?"
Blagojevich on the tape says he'll "hold my nose" and appoint Lisa Madigan if he gets a legislative package passed.
Ultimately, Judge James Zagel said the only way the tape will get admitted is if and when Blagojevich takes the stand.
Reporting with Natasha Korecki
Despite allegations that Blagojevich elevated Jesse Jackson Jr. as a Senate candidate because of a promise to give him $1.5 million in campaign cash, John Harris just testified that money never came up in their Dec. 8, 2008 meeting.
That meeting, one day before the ex-governor was arrested, happened in the State of Illinois building.
"Did Congressman Jackson say anything about money?" Sam Adam asked.
"No," Harris said.
Prosecutors will raise the point that by that date, Blagojevich was on notice that secret government recordings were a possibility.
Government witness John Harris, Blagojevich's former chief of staff, is back on the witness stand being cross-examined by Sam Adam Sr.
Adam is questioning Harris on Blagojevich's much-discussed efforts to strike up a deal with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Under that plan, Blago would appoint Madigan's daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to a U.S. Senate seat in exchange for the speaker's cooperation on a statewide health care bill and a promise to not raise taxes.
These discussions with Madigan did occur, Harris said -- but they were a sham, designed to "demonstrate good will and effort" so that when Madigan did not cooperate, Blago could appoint himself to the Senate seat.
That way, Harris said, Blago could say "the reason for him to appoint himself was his inability to get Madigan's cooperation.
Witnesses were brought into those talks, Harris said, to give them more credibility.
Already this morning, the prosecution is objecting. Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton looks exasperated as she objects, squinting and shaking her head as she's standing up.
After spending part of the day building up former chief of staff John Harris as an intelligent, highly-educated aide, defense lawyer Sam Adam Sr. puts in the dagger:
"You never told him, did you, it'd be illegal to ask Obama to appoint him," Adam asks Harris, referring to Rod Blagojevich wanting a cabinet position from President-Elect Obama in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat.
Blagojevich sought the Health and Human Services cabinet appointment.
"Did you suggest to the Gov. that he or someone like himself, contact David Axelrod as somebody either you or the governor could contact to get in touch with Obama about the idea for HHS?" Adam asked. "That was you?"
Harris: "Yes."
Adam is trying to show that no one thought there was anything wrong with this kind of maneuvering, that's why even his bright gubernatorial staff was in on the suggestions.
Harris revealed that when Blagojevich then met for a second time with Tom Balanoff, an emissary for Jarrett, Balanoff wanted to talk to Blagojevich alone.
After that, Harris said he was given the impression that Balanoff supported the idea of Obama giving Blagojevich the Health and Human Services seat and that he would relay that to the Obama camp.
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was surrounded by highly skilled and intelligent advisers, defense attorney Sam Adam is demonstrating in his cross-examination of John Harris.
Adam started by trying to show that Harris is an intelligent man, former military man, knows law and speaks some Russian. And he's one of the top advisers to Rod Blagojevich.
Now, he's going through other aides to Blagojevich who came up in the prosecution's questioning, including pollster Fred Yang, former Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee, adviser John Wyma.
Adam is running through a list of qualifications for each of these people:
"Did you know that Sen. Dick Durbin was one of (Fred Yang's) clients?"
"Did you know (Bob Greenlee) went to Yale Law School?"
"Did you know that Bill Quinlan was ranked by Super Lawyers magazine as one of the rising stars of Illinois?"
Adam then asked if Harris knew that Quinlan was ranked one of the "Top 40 under 40" lawyers. That's when Judge Zagel cut him off.
"I'd shy away from lawyers rating other lawyers. They're notoriously unreliable," Zagel says to much courtroom laughter.
As the questions wore on, they spark a flurry of objections from the prosecution table -- and the judge sustains -- so Harris rarely answers.
But the gist seems to be that the former governor surrounded himself with good people -- and they're the ones who were advising Blagojevich at the time that the feds say he was committing crimes.
Judge Zagel has called a lunch break. We'll begin again at 1:20 p.m.
Former Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris details a Dec. 8 meeting between the ex-governor and Jesse Jackson Jr. The meeting happened the day before the governor's arrest.
Harris testified that the two, who long had a strained political relationship, discussed the possibility of a political alliance.
The meeting, at the Thompson Center, was not recorded.
Just before ending the meeting, Rod Blagojevich told Jackson:
"I'm glad someone's thinking about me and how they can help me," Blagojevich said, according to Harris.
Harris said Blagojevich was referencing strategy in a future election.
Harris closed his questioning by prosecutors testifying that Blagojevich had made no decision about who to appoint to the Senate post the day before he was elected.
Blagojevich has publicly said he was going to appoint Lisa Madigan but was arrested before he could do it.
Up next: Rob Blagojevich lawyer Michael Ettinger cross examines Harris.
Discussion of the Senate seat appointment continues in the next tape.
On the possibility of former staffer and former U.S. Sen. candidate Cheryle Jackson getting appointed, Rod goes berserk.
"She's so f------ incompetent and a f------ liar," he says. "There's no f------ way"... She bounced a check, forget about it. Don't put her in there."
Cheryle Jackson had bounced a campaign contribution check.
Rod returns to talk of appointing Jesse Jackson Jr., whom he refers to as "uber-African American."
At that, an African American juror laughs quietly and has to put a hand over her mouth to suppress laughter. A juror beside her flashes a knowing smile. It's a rare show of expression from the usually poker-faced jurors.
Rod Blagojevich and John Harris are floating names for the U.S. Senate seat on the next tape. Blago suggests Oprah Winfrey.
"That's crazy," Harris says.
"That's where you're wrong," Blago replies.
Blagojevich is increasingly out of breath while he's talking; the sound of weights clanging is audible in the background. It sounds like he is working out at home while discussing the appointment.
Rod: "She made Obama ... she's a Democrat." Harris: "You're looking for a celebrity to be your friend?" Rod: "She's so up there, so high ..."
Later, Rod keeps brainstorming: "Maybe a black Albert Einstein," he suggests. At that, one African American juror gently shakes her head.
Blagojevich is insistent that they "bolster the list" of potential candidates -- even if it means looking outside of Illinois.
"Who outside of Illinois might fit the bill?" he is heard asking Harris. He mentions Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example.
Harris tries to talk him out of it.
"Picking somebody outside of Illinois has a whole host of problems," Harris tells him. "(They'll say), 'There are 13 million residents (in Illinois), Rod hates them all.'"
Attorneys kicked off Monday morning with discussion of a motion by Robert Blagojevich.
Robert filed a motion recently asking to reserve $350,000 of the campaign fund that's paying for the ex-governor's legal fees.
Prosecutor Reid Schar said he thought the request was "at odds" with Judge James Zagel's previous restraining order, which the judge ordered over the governor's $2.3 million campaign fund after Rod Blagojevich was indicted.
Zagel said he will take up the issue at a later date.
Former Blago Chief of Staff John Harris is back on the stand discussing the 2008 horsetrack subsidy bill.
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton said her marathon questioning of John Harris will conclude Monday morning.
Harris has at times appeared weary on the stand (as have courtroom observers) as he answers question after question about what he or Rod Blagojevich meant in a multitude of secretly recorded conversations.
Sam Adam Sr. is slotted to cross examine Harris.
After that, SEIU leader Thomas Balanoff will take the stand.
Balanoff had direct conversations with both Obama and Valerie Jarrett about the Senate seat appointment in addition to having met personally with Blagojevich.
Doug Scofield is a former Blagojevich consultant, campaign spokesman/head who also talked to Blagojevich about Jarrett's appointment.
In the newest recording played, Rod Blagojevich is heard talking with former Chief of Staff John Harris about forging some kind of political alliance with Valerie Jarrett.
Harris is suggesting that Rod Blagojevich could tell Valerie Jarrett he'd appoint her if she'd "stand up with him," rendering the governor more effective moving his legislative agenda forward.
Harris: "If she commits to that, that's pretty good, too ... The president's best friend and ally ... Emil Jones, standing next to you at some health care event isn't as powerful as Valerie."
Blagojevich isn't having it.
"I agree with everything you're saying, but what does that do for me?" Blagojevich says.
Later: "You understand, it's very important for me to make a lot of money. I need the independence. I need the freedom."
Blagojevich complains about the vulnerability my family is under because of these public responsibilities ... that I've made my children and my wife vulnerable."
He goes on.
"I've got this scrutiny going on and this investigation. How the hell am I going to send my kids to college ... and never again am I going to screw ... my kids and my family."
Big brother Robert Blagojevich is trying to dispense a dose of sanity to his younger brother in the next tape.
Rod suggests he appoint Louanner Peters, arguing that she could then step aside before Rod gets impeached.
"Oh Jesus!" Rob Blagojevich can be heard saying.
Rod asks: What's better, "that or being impeached?"
Rob: "Neither one! Neither one! It's so transparent. What is the public going to think? ... I don't like that option at all," he says forcefully.
More talk about what to do with Obama's Senate seat on the tapes.
Blagojevich and Harris are heard discussing another option -- appointing top Blago aide Louanner Peters to the seat as a one-termer.
This could come in handy in case Blago is impeached, he argued, because Peters could step down and he could quickly appoint himself to the seat.
"She's be the only one I would count on to do that," Harris is heard agreeing.
"Right now, Louanner is the front-runner," Blagojevich says.
But they again discuss floating a rumor to Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed that Jesse Jackson Jr. is actually at the top of their list.
It wasn't true, Harris said from the stand. But if the Obama camp thought Blago was going to pick Jackson -- which they didn't want -- they might be more willing to "help the governor in other ways."
Rod Blagojevich and John Harris discuss a call Harris got from John Wyma relaying a message from the Obama camp.
This is significant because it shows that Wyma, a Blagojevich friend and lobbyist, had contact with both the Obama camp and the then-governor at the same time he had been cooperating with federal officials.
Wyma passed along a message from Rahm Emanuel:
"Rahm asked him to deliver the message -- the president-elect would be very pleased if you appointed Valerie and he would be, uh, thankful and appreciative" for a Valerie Jarrett appointment.
"They're not willing to give me anything but appreciation -- f--- them," Blagojevich said.
In the background, a children's TV show is heard playing and a child is heard talking.
Prosecutors have played more of a taped conversation between Rod Blagojevich, then-Chief of Staff John Harris and Democratic consultant Fred Yang.
They're still mulling over Blago's options -- the job at labor organization Change to Win, a possible Washington lobbying gig for Patti.
Then the conversation turns to Jesse Jackson Jr.
Fred Yang: I think the only option you should not contemplate is Jesse Jackson Jr. for the Senate seat.
Blagojevich: Like, nobody ... you and Obama agree on that one. Tell me why.
Yang: I don't think he deserves to be in the U.S. Senate, for one. And I don't think he could hold a U.S. Senate seat.
Blagojevich: Not to mention No. 3 -- he's a bad guy.
From the stand, Harris tells the court there was "bad blood" between Blago and Jesse Jr. dating back to the ex-governor's first gubernatorial primary. Jackson promised to endorse Blago, but changed his mind when Roland Burris entered the race.
On the tape, Blago is heard saying a Jesse Jr. appointment is "highly, highly, highly unlikely."
Judge James Zagel has shot down prosecutors' request to put a gag order on Rod Blagojevich, arguing that the ex-governor is doing little damage with his vague and repetitive statements.
"It is reported to me," Zagel said, "that one defendant (brother Robert Blagojevich) says nothing about anything, and the other defendant (Rod Blagojevich) says one of two things: One, I am innocent, or two, all the witnesses against me are lying."
"If this is what he keeps doing, I don't think it's that big a deal," the judge said.
Prosecutors requested the gag order after Blago publicly blasted former friend and government witness Lon Monk after his testimony earlier this month, calling him a liar and saying his parents should be ashamed. The government said today they were worried Blago would do so again with John Harris and others.
Zagel said they would deal with that situation if it arises.
The defense team did agree to not make any public statements questioning the credibility of witnesses. That concession appeared to appease the judge.
Further into the tape, we're hearing more plotting about how to use Barack Obama's Senate seat appointment to land Rod Blagojevich a job.
Now, Blagojevich and Harris are talking about a position with a foundation supported by organized labor -- the Change to Win Federation. Harris is heard explaining to Blago that it would give him a good salary and could provide potential to go back into politics later, if he wanted.
Furthermore, Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern, the union leaders advocating for Barack Obama's pick for the Senate, could hook him up with the job, he said.
Harris said the job would probably have to wait until the end of his governor's term, though. He was worried about Blagojevich stepping down to take a job in the private sector.
Blago proposed a solution -- Patti could run the Illinois branch of Change to Win, and after his term is over, he could take over the national branch.
"Would that be too stupid?" Blago asks.
Judge Zagel has called a break for lunch. Court will resume at 1:50 p.m.
The Nov, 6, 2008 call continues and the conversation turns to more plotting before Blagojevich's big meeting with union leader Tom Balanoff, which was scheduled for that afternoon.
Blagojevich is practicing a conversation in which he'd up others -- Emil Jones, Lisa Madigan -- to up the value of the appointment, showing Balanoff there was competition for the seat.
On the stand, John Harris explains that he didn't think Madigan or Jones were truly in consideration, though.
Blago says he heard on the news that the Obama camp was considering Valerie Jarrett, who they had been pushing for the Senate appointment, for a cabinet post.
"So they're willing to give her a cabinet spot," Blago is heard saying. "So if that's the case, give me the cabinet spot and we'll give her the Senate seat. What do you think of that? I thought that was a good sign."
At one point in the conversation, Blagojevich is referring to the Health and Human Service cabinet post he's after -- but he keeps referring to it as "DHS," not "HHS." Harris keeps correcting him.
Harris is testifying about a recording in which Rod Blagojevich demands that the Chicago Tribune's editorial board get hacked if the Tribune Co. wants state help with its sale of Wrigley Field and the Cubs.
"Did you see that Tribune editorial today?" Blagojevich begins on the Nov. 6, 2008 tape.
Blagojevich asks Harris about the results of a meeting he had with an associate of Sam Zell's, the owner of the Tribune, the day before -- the "mission he had sent me on earlier," Harris said from the stand.
Harris had been sent to tell the Tribune the governor wanted its editorial board fired and replaced, or he would not go forward with providing state assistance on the Wrigley and Cubs transaction, Harris testified.
But Harris ignored the directive, he testified, suggesting only that "continued negative (editorial) coverage could cause the General Assembly or others to try to derail the transaction," he testified.
On the tape, the governor coaches Harris to try to line up some positive editorials in the future.
"The other point you want to make is we, we sure would like to get some editorial support from your paper, OK?" Blagojevich is heard saying.
The two are also heard discussing how much the state's help on the sale is worth to the Tribune.
"What's it worth to them, $500 million?" Blagojevich is heard asking.
Harris responds that it's closer to $100 million.
"That's all? How do you figure?" Blago asks.
Back in the courtroom, an agitated-looking Blagojevich is digging into his notebook with his pen as he listens to Harris.
Just minutes into the day, and prosecutors have already played jurors two more tapes.
The first is another Nov. 5, 2008 conversation between Rod Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris, who is beginning his third day on the stand.
With ideas already floating about for an ambassadorship or a cabinet position, Rod on the tape is wondering about a job with a foundation.
Harris asks if he's looking for a position like Elizabeth Dole's, who headed the Red Cross.
"That's exactly right," Rod is heard saying.
In the second, Blagojevich has two top staffers -- then-Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee and John Harris -- on a conference call, ticking off the names of charities so he can pick one and ask Obama's camp for help landing a top position in one.
Only Blago's not familiar with the charity groups, so his staff has to do research on them.
Rod:"United Way. What is the United Way?" ...
Rod: "What does it pay?"
Bob Greenlee: "It's very good pay, in the 2-3s (hundreds of thousands)."
Rod:"Oh, that's all?"
Later...
Rod: "Salvation Army. That would be huge. Have to wear a uniform, forget that."
Laughter in the courtroom over the last comment, including from Rod and Patti.
Meanwhile, there's a technical issue in the courthouse overflow room -- no sound at all. A group of reporters are waiting for a IT worker to show up; about a dozen members of the public who showed up to listen to the proceedings have taken off.
Prosecutors play a series of recordings where Rod Blagojevich can be heard asking how he can personally benefit from his power to appoint Barack Obama's replacement.
"Let's go down the pecking order... What else is good? Ambassador to the UN?" Blagojevich is heard saying in a secretly recorded call with his top aide, John Harris.
Harris: "No way."
Blagojevich: "Right, keep going ... "How about India? How about South Africa?"
Good for Blagojevich: The defense asks for a mistrial, saying Judge James Zagel unfairly shut down their questioning of witnesses and made inappropriate remarks in front of jurors. Zagel says they can submit a list of questions they should have been allowed to ask and he'd consider.
Up today:
Day three on the stand for John Harris. He'll pick up today talking about Blagojevich's on-tape statements about wanting to be named ambassador to India.
John Harris' testimony continues and prosecutors play another recording where jurors can hear Rod Blagojevich negotiating ways he can benefit from appointing Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat.
On the call, Blagojevich also explores appointing himself, describing it as the "ace in the hole." Harris says regular people won't be offended by the move.
Rod Blagojevich at one point wonders what a Jarrett appointment is worth to Obama. He again brings up the secretary of Health and Human Services position.
"If I were him, a top cabinet post. I wouldn't consider it. I wouldn't do it if I were him," Harris says on the tape.
Blagojevich and Harris talk strategy for the governor's planned phone call to union leader Tom Balanoff, who he believes is acting as a go-between for the Obama camp. Blagojevich is trying to figure out the best way to ask for a job.
Harris likens the potential conversation to bidding for a house, urging Blagojevich not to shoot too high to start. Instead, he suggested, let the Obama camp make the first move.
"Let them feel like they're helping you," Harris says. "Let them come to you first."
"Let's go down the pecking order. What else is good?" Blagojevich asks.
Harris said he thinks Obama would "do an ambassadorship."
Blagojevich: "OK. I'm interested. How about India? South Africa? ... That's realistic? No s---."
Harris explained his reasoning from the stand, saying, "An ambassadorship in some small country somewhere would pretty much sideline (Blagojevich) for the rest of his political life" and therefore may be appealing to Obama.
On the tape, Blagojevich is clearly taken with the India idea.
"I'm the governor of a $58 billion corporation, why can't I be ambassador to India?" he asks.
Adding: "What's more important, commerce secretary or ambassador to India?"
He argues that he has "a bigger resume" than Bill Daley did when he was appointed commerce secretary.
"What do you think?" he asks Harris, referring to the commerce post. "Unreachable? Or, you know, not necessarily unreachable but hard to get?"
Back to the ambassadorships. "Canada? France?" Blagojevich asks.
"All those are easier than India," Harris says.
But, Harris says, Blagojevich may face an uphill battle.
"It's the Rezko issue," Harris is heard saying. "I think your qualifications are there. It's not about your qualifications."
Allegations involving Rod Blagojevich and the Tribune Company are now coming up as prosecutors play secretly recorded call where Blagojevich is heard telling John Harris the bad editorials in the Chicago Tribune better stop.
"I understood him to say ... let them know that we would not be going forward with involvement with the sale of Cubs and Wrigley Field and we would not be providing our assistance if they continued to beat up the governor on its editorial page," Harris testified Blagojevich told him on a call.
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked Harris what message Blagojevich wanted sent to the Tribune.
"Stop or else," Harris said. "Stop with the bad editorials, or else we won't go forward with this."
"What is it that he wanted?" Carrie Hamilton asked Harris of Blagojevich.
On another tape just played by prosecutors, Rod Blagojevich is heard talking to John Harris over the phone on Nov. 3, 2008 -- the day before the election.
They are discussing how Barack Obama is sending two representatives -- union leaders Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern -- to visit to talk about Valerie Jarrett.
"Do they think I would just appoint Valerie Jarrett for nothing?" Blagojevich is heard saying of the Obama camp. "Just to make it happen?"
Judge Zagel has called a one-hour break for lunch. Court will reconvene at 1:30 p.m.
Two days before the 2008 presidential election, Rahm Emanuel called John Harris to pass on the soon-to-be president-elect's request that Valerie Jarrett be appointed to his senate seat, Harris has testified.
Harris was shopping with his kids at a Payless shoe store on Nov. 2, 2008 when he got Emanuel's call.
Emanuel told Harris that then-Sen. Barack Obama was interested in seeing a "close friend" of his appointed to his seat, Harris testified.
Harris said he understood that friend to be Valerie Jarrett, a longtime Chicago public official and close friend and fund-raiser for Obama.
"(Emanuel) asked whether it would be helpful if Sen. Obama called the governor to advocate for this individual," Harris testified. "I said sure."
"He said, 'I'll let you know," Harris testified, but for the moment, "He wanted to say that the senator had a preference."
In an Oct. 6, 2008 conversation in a car, John Harris said Blagojevich brought up the senate seat for the first time since the Jones debacle.
"So what do you think I can get for the senate seat?" Harris said the governor asked
"What do you mean, for you?" Harris asked. "You can get a new ally or reward an ally, that's what you can get."
Blagojevich then looked away and was quiet, Harris testified.
But that wasn't the last of it, Harris said, describing two more conversations with the governor about what he could get for the appointment.
At one point, the conversation turned to cash. Blagojevich wondered how much he could get for the seat from several interested parties, including Blair Hull.
"I told him, 'You can't get money for the senate seat. You shouldn't even consider that as an option.' And we moved on," Harris testified.
And in mid-October, Blagojevich, Harris and the governor's attorney, Bill Quinlan, were again discussing senate seat possibilities.
Blagojevich brought up how he might profit off the appointment, perhaps by putting "money into a 501 C (3)."
Harris said Quinlan became stern with Blagojevich.
"You can't ever joke like that. You can't talk like that," Harris said Quinlan told him. "You know, whether you're serious or not, don't say things like that."
About an hour into today's testimony and there has not been a single objection from the defense.
Former Blago chief of staff John Harris has just given testimony that backs up what Lon Monk told the court earlier this month -- that in 2008, Blagojevich was in cahoots with then-state senate Pres. Emil Jones to kill an ethics bill that would have seriously hindered the governor's fund-raising efforts.
Harris testified that he was "in the room" for discussions with Blagojevich's campaign staff when they were discussing the ethics bill, which would have prohibited politicians from accepting campaign cash from donors who do state business.
"It would have a significant effect on his ability to raise funds, is what I understood from him," Harris testified.
The bill had passed both houses of the legislature but, using his veto powers, Blagojevich had rewritten portions of it. Jones was being pressured to call the bill for an override vote, Harris testified, which would have passed the bill in its original form.
"I expressed my concern that I didn't think Emil would hold, that he wouldn't withstand the pressure not to hold the bill," Harris testified.
Blagojevich wasn't so concerned, though, Harris said.
"He thought Emil would hold because he knew something we didn't," Harris testified. "He told us that Emil Jones wanted (Barack Obama's) senate seat" and wouldn't go back on his "pledge."
Jones, though, did succumb to political and public pressure and called the bill.
"No way he's getting the seat now," Harris said Blagojevich told him.
Patti's sitting in the front row, wearing a black and white wrap-dress, her legs crossed, her black high-heeled shoes occasionally tapping.
Back in 2007, Rod Blagojevich's legal bills were mounting. He had already paid $1 million to the law firm Winston & Strawn -- money that came out of his campaign fund -- for legal fees related to his federal investigation. And he was about to get hit with another $700,000 bill.
"The governor was very upset," testified John Harris, Blagojevich's then-chief of staff.
That's because he had to disclose on campaign records that he was swimming in legal bills -- which meant the feds were indeed breathing down his neck, despite his contradicting public comments, Harris said.
"That would send the message that he was in more trouble than he let on," Harris said.
The dent in his fund because of legal bills also meant his power was diminishing, Harris said.
Harris is now talking about the ex-governor's alleged efforts to stall an ethics bill.
To start off the morning in a bizarre way: a group of six people stood in the hallway just outside the courtroom and clapped and cheered for Rod as he walked out from the
elevators.
"Free Blago!" one yelled.
Rod and Patti walked up to them, Rod shaking their hands: "I didn't let you down, and this is the process to show it," he said, pointing to the courtroom.
On Monday: the prosecution lodged an attack on Rod Blagojevich through three different witnesses as it plows through its case at a rapid clip.
1. Bradley Tusk: testified while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him to deliver a message to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: He'd only get a $2 million grant for a school in his district if his Hollywood agent brother Ari Emanuel (the inspiration for Ari Gold on "Entourage") held a fund-raiser. Tusk testified that Gov. Blagojevich wasn't "engaged" and tough to find.
He said he had to hunt him down at his tailor and his daughter's salon to sign bills.
Otherwise, Tusk, today 36, was often tasked with signing bills. Good for Blagojevich: Tusk said he thought the Emanuel request was illegal, but didn't quit his job and never reported it to law enforcement.
2. John Johnston: racetrack executive says as he awaited the governor's signature on a bill, he was shaken down for a campaign contribution by Lon Monk, Johnston's "conduit" to Rod Blagojevich. Good for Blagojevich: Johnston says Blagojevich never asked him for cash and admits that Monk could be lying.
3. John Harris:says Blagojevich told him to cut off two brokerage firms from state business after each failed to hire his wife, Patti. Good for Blagojevich: Harris never carried out his alleged order.
A congratulations to Sam Adam, who joins four other defense team members in receiving a thumping by U.S. District Judge James Zagel.
Up today: Former chief of staff John Harris is back on the stand where he'll likely remain until next week. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Hamilton says she'll bring in a series of secretly recorded conversations through Harris.
Rod Blagojevich told his top aide to cut off two firms, including CitiBank, from state business as retaliation for not giving his wife a job, former chief of staff John Harris has testified.
Patti had just gotten her Series 7 securities license; Rod was anxious to find her work, Harris testified, and asked the chief of staff to meet with some business contacts on her behalf.
Harris did, reaching out to two acquaintances, including one at CitiBank, he said. But the networking attempts failed -- and the governor was not pleased, he testified.
"He told me to make sure CitiBank doesn't get any more state work, and to make sure that John Rogers doesn't get any more state work," Harris testified. "He didn't feel they had done enough to help Patti."
Harris told an "agitated" and "angry" Blagojevich that cutting the firms off would be impossible, that he didn't have control over their bond work.
When Harris later learned CitiBank was in line to win a major state deal, he said he purposely kept Blagojevich in the dark.
After court, Bradley Tusk said that after Rod Blagojevich told him to ask Emanuel for a fund-raiser, he called to raise the issue with the then-governor's attorney.
"I meant, I was disturbed by what I heard," Tusk said.
A gaggle of reporters and camera crews followed Tusk out of the courthouse, bumping into one another in an obstacle course of cement benches behind the Dirksen Building.
One tattooed passerby shouted: "Rod Blagojevich, man! I hear he charged with 24 counts!"
Prosecutor Reid Schar is emphatic as he asks follow-up questions about Blagojevich, speaking with his hands waving in the air, looking a tad red in the face. He's asking former Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk if Rod Blagojevich was easy to reach as governor.
The answer was no.
"He was not always engaged in the process," Tusk responded.
Schar asked if Blagojevich often ranted and raved as governor.
Yes -- but about having to attend meetings to talk about state business, Tusk said.
Schar mentioned one occasion when, Tusk has testified, Blagojevich asked about Emanuel's fund-raiser on the phone. Was he just ranting and raving then, Schar asked?
"No," Tusk said.
Schar: "Did you take him very seriously?"
Tusk: "I did."
Sorosky countered that the governor was known as a person who would make off-the-cuff remarks at times.
"He just said it once to you in a telephone conversation," Sorosky said. "You don't know if he was frustrated about whatever at the time."
Tusk's testimony has ended and Judge Zagel has called a 15-minute break.
Former Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk has testified that he didn't quit or notify any law enforcement agency after hearing of Blagojevich's alleged attempted shakedown of Rahm Emanuel.
Earlier in his cross-examination, Sorosky went down a line of questioning asking Tusk if the state was "bombarded" by requests like the Chicago Academy's -- seemingly to prove that the delay was a regular backlog, not the cause of any wrongdoing. Prosecutor Reid Schar objected.
Zagel sustained, telling Sorosky that he was confusing a delay in grant requests for a delay in paying out grants that had already been approved.
"If you want to ask him about refusals for grants that had already been granted, then that would have some relevance," Zagel said, assuming his coaching role.
It's getting to the point where Schar doesn't even speak to object -- he just stands up.
"Objection sustained," Judge Zagel continues, time after time.
As his lawyer cross examines Tusk, Rod at one point looks away and takes a deep breath.
Rod Blagojevich addressed a small crowd outside the courtroom during the lunch break. The first topic -- his wife's new haircut.
"It's beautiful. I say that to her every day -- and I'm not just saying that because she's testifying," he said, laughing. He confirmed that he got a trim, too.
Blagojevich also spoke about a possible gag order and said his lawyers are on the side of the First Amendment.
"One of the things we're fighting for is the First Amendment. That's worth fighting for and that's worth dying for, and that's what we're trying to do," he said.
Then Blagojevich came back to reporters to finish his sentence and make sure everyone got this: "The right of free speech, one of the cornerstones of America."
He was eventually warned by a deputy marshal to stop speaking.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- President Barack Obama's chief of staff, then a congressman in Illinois, apparently attempted to trade favors with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich while he was in office, according to newly disclosed e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.
Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, agreed to sign a letter to the Chicago Tribune supporting Blagojevich in the face of a scathing editorial by the newspaper that ridiculed the governor for self-promotion. Within hours, Emanuel's own staff asked for a favor of its own: The release of a delayed $2 million grant to a school in his district.
The 2006 discussion with Blagojevich's top aide, Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk, doesn't appear to cross legal lines, and Emanuel couldn't speed up the distribution of the funds.
But it offers a peek at ties between two high-profile Illinois politicians -- one now the president's right-hand man, the other facing years in prison if convicted of political corruption.
Discussion of the exchange could come up at Blagojevich's corruption trial, currently under way in Chicago. Blagojevich, who is accused of plotting to profit by selling an appointment to Obama's former Senate seat, also tried later that year to use the school grant in an extortion attempt against Emanuel, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities say he ordered Tusk, who told the AP he is scheduled to testify in the case Monday and couldn't comment, to get Emanuel to compel his Hollywood agent brother to host a political fundraiser before the grant was paid.
White House spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment.
The favor unfolded in January 2006, according to e-mail exchanges released under the Freedom of Information Act. Blagojevich was 10 weeks away from a Democratic primary challenge in his quest for a second term and a federal investigation into his administration's hiring practices was well known.
The Tribune ripped him for claiming he was too busy governing to campaign for the primary, while plastering his name on taxpayer-financed projects such as the new automatic-pay toll highway system and a health care plan for children.
"Why be a chump on the stump when you can make taxpayers campaign for you?" the newspaper chafed.
Tusk, currently a consultant to the Republican candidate for New York state attorney general, tapped Emanuel, who had remained friendly after winning Blagojevich's former seat in the U.S. House in 2002.
Tusk wanted someone defending the governor for merely publicizing his own good programs, according to the e-mail exchange. A proposed 180-word letter to the editor followed.
"Would you be willing to send something like this to the Trib in response to today's editorial?" Tusk wrote Emanuel on Jan. 11, 2006.
Emanuel agreed. Later that day, the congressman's chief of staff suggested that someone contact the state employee overseeing the grant that Emanuel wanted released to the Chicago Academy, a teacher-preparatory school in Emanuel's district which wanted to build athletic fields. The grant, promised months earlier, still hadn't been paid.
On Jan. 16, 2006, a modified letter appeared in the Tribune over Emanuel's name. Despite the "packaging" of Blagojevich's programs, it said, "It's wrong to suggest it's the triumph of form over content. Look inside those packages, and you'll find real and lasting progress for the people of Illinois."
The money, however, didn't follow as quickly, and Emanuel appeared agitated.
"What the hell is holding up the school funding? This is a real problem for me now," Emanuel wrote on Aug. 28 when a contractor on the school project stopped work. "I am getting killed."
When Tusk repeatedly promised to call, Emanuel responded, "Just e-mail and tell me first will this happen in my lifetime. Second if yes then when. Real simple."
Phone records show Emanuel called Blagojevich on four successive days in late summer 2006. One message indicated the subject was the school. Repeated phone calls between Emanuel's and Blagojevich's staff followed the next week.
Shortly thereafter, the money started flowing, and the $2 million was paid by December. There was never a fundraiser.
Adam is working to distance Johnston from Blagojevich.
The attorney refers back to a 2008 conversation that Johnston testified about earlier, in which Lon Monk told Johnston that Blagojevich feared that if he passed the racetrack bill, Johnston wouldn't make a contribution.
In what has become a repeated argument of the defense, Adam asks Johnston if he ever heard those words come out of Blagojevich's mouth.
"The governor never said that to you, did he?" Adam asks. "And you don't know whether Monk was telling you the truth or if he was lying to you."
Johnston agrees.
Adam later argues that Johnston only felt pressure from the man he paid $300,000 over two years -- Lon Monk.
Sam Adam Sr. is cross-examining racetrack owner John Johnston. At one point, Johnston says not to tell his father he called him an "ornery S.O.B."
Judge Zagel cracks a rare smile. Adam looks across the room to his son, saying, "Some of us have been called worse by our sons."
Sam Adam Jr. puts his hand to his face and shakes his head, smiling, as does Rod.
Sam Sr. is falling right in line with every other defense lawyer who has been counseled by Zagel as to how to appropriately question witnesses.
When Adam began questioning Johnston about material that wasn't brought up by the prosecution, Zagel told him he was "outside the scope."
But -- like son, like father -- Adam persisted.
"I don't think you got my point," Zagel told him sternly, adding that if he wanted, he could call Johnston back as a witness for the defense. "If you want to try to bring this stuff out, you're going to have to do it in your case, not theirs."
Adam is standing at the lectern to question, appearing to reference to notes before each query.
Johnston is testifying about a Dec. 3, 2008 meeting with his lobbyist, Lon Monk, at the Maywood racetrack office.
Monk came over after a meeting with Blagojevich at the then-governor's campaign office.
Johnston said he purposely planted his father -- "an ornery "S.O.B." -- in the meeting just so Monk wouldn't bring up the contribution.
It didn't work -- Monk brought it up anyway, on his way out, in the vestibule, Johnston testified.
Monk said he had spoken to the governor, who was concerned that if he signed the racetrack bill, Johnston would not make a contribution, Johnston testified.
"I said, I thought that's what the governor might be thinking. Your suggestion of a contribution at this time is inappropriate," Johnston testified that he told Monk.
"(Monk) turned to me and kind of rubbed his hands together and said, 'OK, different subject matter. I really need you to get a contribution in by the end of the year,'" Johnston testified.
Johnston again tried to dodge the subject, he said, but he felt pressured to give money and was uncomfortable.
"The fate of the legislation somewhat lay in the governor's hands," Johnston testified. "It concerned me."
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked Johnston if he believed that the contribution and the legislation were linked. Johnston said he thought it was.
"Just because (Monk) puts his hands together and says it's a different subject matter, doesn't make it so," he said.
During Johnston's testimony, Rod Blagojevich sat sideways in his chair, at times with his hand to his face, at times writing furiously.
Sam Adam Sr. is now cross-examining -- his first witness in this trial.
A mild-mannered Johnston is testifying with his hands folded before him.
He just told jurors the 2008 racetrack bill -- which would extend a 2006 law that funneled subsidies from riverboat casinos to the struggling horse racing industry -- would bring $9,000 a day to his two racetracks -- once it went into effect.
Every day counted when it came to getting the bill signed.
Prosecutors show jurors a chart showing that in 2006, it took Blagojevich just one day to sign a similar bill.
Earlier, Johnston testified about a series of conversations he had with Lon Monk during which Monk asked him for campaign contributions.
Johnston did not commit to giving money and generally dodged the issue, he said.
I would generally try to deflect the conversation to another subject matter," he testified.
John Johnston, the horse racing businessman and alleged extortion victim, has taken the stand. He is the second witness testifying with a grant of immunity.
His entrance into the courtroom was ... unconventional. Instead of waiting for a court security officer to remove the rope that cordons off the spectators from the main floor, Johnston just ducked right under it.
Johnston, wearing a pink and blue striped tie, is expected to testify that he was the victim of a shakedown scheme by the ex-governor related to a 2008 state bill that would have provided millions in subsidies to the horse racing industry.
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner just showed a chart detailing $320,000 in campaign contributions from Johnston's business or related ones. They're showing jurors that the donations were consistent -- but they came during fund-raisers.
That will not be the scenario when Johnston describes the then-governor's alleged shakedown in 2008.
Jill Hayden, the former director of the Governor's Office of Boards & Commissions under Rod Blagojevich, has taken the stand.
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner questioned her about the process by which Blagojevich appointed people to the state's 300 boards and commissions. The governor was tasked with filling 1,500 positions; only a few of those were paid, Hayden said.
Hayden, who reported to then-gubernatorial chief of staff Lon Monk, handled applications for the appointees and oversaw the vetting process. She testified that she frequently saw people recommended for board spots by Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly, and "generally those candidates were taken more seriously."
Judge Zagel has called a one-hour break for lunch. Court will reconvene at 1:30 p.m.
One of Rod Blagojevich's defense lawyers just took great pains to make sure witness Joseph Aramanda explained who else was at Tony Rezko's mansion the day he met Rod Blagojevich.
The other person: Barack Obama.
Aramanda said it was a fund-raiser for both Obama and Blagojevich.
The defense is trying to draw links here. They're trying to show that Aramanda was bamboozled by Tony Rezko -- just like Blagojevich and, they will argue, just like Obama.
Obama and Rezko were friends when Obama was an aspiring U.S. Senator. Rezko did some fund-raising for Obama and bought property next door to the Obama's Hyde Park home.
Defense lawyer Michael Gillespie said Rezko used Aramanda to funnel kickbacks.
"He made no mention he was using you as a front man to get his money," Gillespie asked.
Aramanda had testified that Rezko arranged for Aramanda to get "business loans"
through Rezko's friends. Rezko then tapped Aramanda to use portions of those "loans" to repay Rezko's debt.
Rezko also directed Aramanda to make payments on his behalf, he testified. Aramanda testified that Rezko gave him a list of names and told him the amounts he was to wire to various Rezko associates.
Not included in that list: Rod Blagojevich.
"He never gave you a wire transfer for an account in Aruba and said, this is the governor's, send it to him," Gillespie asked.
"No," Aramanda responded.
A second witness -- who is on the stand under a letter of immunity -- testified that Tony Rezko told him Rod Blagojevich, while he was governor, was involved in a deal with Rezko where fees would be split between himself and his "inner circle."
Rezko proposed that Aramanda would act as an intermediary with the Teachers Retirement Systems and receive fees from TRS investments with different firms, according to court records.
Joseph Aramanda testified that Rezko invited him to be part of that business venture where his annual yearly salary would be $250,000. Aramanda said he thought that was shockingly low, given that the transactions could rake in $1 million or more per deal and there would likely be multiple deals each year.
Aramanda asked Rezko what was going to happen to the rest of the money, he testified.
The answer was that it would be split among other partners.
The big reveal: Aramanda backed up what government witness Lon Monk claimed earlier in his testimony -- that sharing in the proceeds from that proposed deal would be Rod Blagojevich, Lon Monk and Chris Kelly.
"I was uncomfortable with the situation," Aramanda said of the proposed venture. "I thought it was wrong."
Aramanda said he refused to take part in it.
Still, his testimony supports Monk, who the defense called a liar. Monk testified that Blagojevich, himself, Rezko and Kelly met secretly to map out how they would make money off of state deals with the then-governor taking action to benefit his friends.
Aramanda is a friend and former business associate of Rezko, the convicted fund-raiser. He is testifying about a 2004 deal to accept a finder's fee from Glencoe Capital, which won a $50 million investment from the state's Teachers' Retirement System.
Aramanda hadn't done any work for his fees, he testified. So when he asked Glencoe Capital's Sheldon Pekin to make the second payment in April 2004, Pekin shot back with, "What do you think, Christmas comes early?" according to Aramanda.
Prosecutors played a recording of a conversation between onetime TRS and health board member Stuart Levine and Sheldon Pekin that confirmed the Christmas comment and the tape made reference to the "other guy," getting upset about Pekin's comment. The "other guy," is a reference to Tony Rezko, according to testimony at Rezko's 2008 trial.
Pekin's comment insinuated that Aramanda was pocketing "gift" money, Aramanda testified, and he was offended by the remark.
According to Aramanda, it was Rezko who hooked up Aramanda to do work for Pekin. Of Aramanda's first $150,000 payment from Pekin, $50,000 went to Rezko, Aramanda testified.
Rezko approached Aramanda to smooth things over after the Christmas remark, and he told Aramanda he wanted him in on another investment-finding deal -- one he said "could be a really big business opportunity and could relate to multiple transactions over a number of years," Aramanda testified.
Defense attorney Michael Gillespie is now cross-examining.
Rod Blagojevich addressed the press moments ago on his way out of the courthouse. It was the first time he had spoken publicly since his old friend and former chief of staff, Lon Monk, took the stand last Thursday to testify against him.
"Today was, in many ways, from a personal standpoint, a very sad day," Blagojevich began with Patti by his side.
"It was very sad to see my old friend on the stand, testifying to statements that he made, acknowledging that those statements were not true," he said.
The ex-governor was referring to several points from Monk's testimony that defense attorney Sam Adams Jr. cast as lies in his cross-examination today.
"As my old friend was testifying and saying things that he knew weren't true, I couldn't help but think about times that we spent together," Blagojevich continued. "I couldn't help but think about his mother and his father, especially his father, and the shame that his father probably feels.
"And, of course, I felt a real sadness for him, knowing that he made statements and said things that were not true and is now going to spend time in jail for something he didn't do.
"So it's a very, very sad day from a personal standpoint, but from the standpoint of getting the truth out, I think we made real strides in establishing what the truth is," he said.
Cross-examination of Lon Monk is back after a short break. Sam Adam Jr. picked up where he left off, with the Illinois Tollway project and alleged shakedown of contractor Jerry Krozel.
Adam is asking Monk why, if Krozel felt extorted by the governor's requests, the contractor didn't complain but instead asked to schedule an in-person meeting with the governor in his office.
Did Krozel do anything to tell you he was feeling extorted, Adam asks?
Did he send you a letter, he asks? Call you on the phone?
"No," is Monk's answer each time.
"Smoke signal?!" Adam finally yells. "Anything? Anything at all?"
Even Lon cracks a smile at the "smoke signal" question.
Judge James Zagel tries to calm down Adam's questioning on the topic, telling him to stay on track.
"My concern is there is a discrete set of charges. Some of your questions seem to be directed toward things that are not charged and irrelevant. And that's my concern," Zagel said.
Sam Adam Jr. is pacing about in front of the lectern and starts asking another question that's been objected to already.
He just begins two words of his question and the prosecutor, a tall Christopher Niewoehner, already stands up to object. Because of Adam's constant movement the two are suddenly almost eye to eye -- two steps closer and they could have collided.
Adam's eyes bug out and he bobbles his head a bit.
"I withdraw," he smiles as courtroom erupts in laughter.
Adam is now vigorously attacking Monk's credibility as a witness, arguing that he is telling jurors the prosecutors' version of the truth in exchange for a sentence one-tenth as long as the one he might have faced.
Sam Adam Jr. gets animated asking Monk if he remembers any details from the meetings where the four -- Monk, Blagojevich, Rezko and Kelly -- agreed to split up money off of state deals.
"I don't remember," Monk says repeatedly.
Adam is nearing him, then paces away. He points to the ex-governor and points in the air.
Adam notes it's the first time in Monk's adult life he was going to commit a felony and he can't recall "one!" detail about what Tony Rezko wrote on the board.
Rod is sitting sideways with one arm lazily lying on the courtroom table, looking as if he's enjoying this.
"I don't know if we gave that much thought where the money was going to go," Monk says. Rod starts quietly laughing to himself, then puts his hand over his mouth suppressing a smile.
"The truth is the way they see it!"" Adam says.
Monk pauses and appears to try to collect himself.
"I'm supposed to tell the truth," he said, his forehead wrinkling deeply as he answers.
Adam has seized on the fact that Monk called $90,000 in cash he accepted from Rezko an "advance payment" for a future job he might take with Rezko. In advance interviews with prosecutors, it appears Monk called the money a "gift."
"You told us it was an advance payment on the insurance deal, didn't you?" Adam asked.
"Yeah. Or some other endeavor I might be working with Tony on," Monk said.
"That's not true either is it, Mr. Monk? You're lying about that, aren't you?" Adam asked.
Sam Adam Jr. has begun questioning former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk about the early years of his involvement in Blagojevich's political career - the transition to the governor's seat in 2003.
He is first tackling the issue of the board and commission appointments that Blagojevich made - allegedly in exchange for campaign cash.
Adam argued that with some 1,500 board and commission seats that needed filling, there were thousands of applicants, and Blagojevich could not have reviewed them all.
"While you say it's the governor's ultimate responsibility, the governor didn't sit down and interview, 3, 4,000 people for these jobs, did he?" Adam asked him.
Sam Adam Jr. is now asking Monk about "philosophies" under Blagojevich's gubernatorial administration. Adam is animated, pacing, speaking very loudly in response to Monk's calm, measured words.
Adam is prompting repeated objections from the government, and all of them so far have been upheld by the judge. Government prosecutors have perhaps already objected more in the first 15 minutes of the day than Sam Adam Jr. objected for the entirety of the government's three days of questioning Monk.
"It might be better if you use less loaded words," Judge Zagel told Adam. Zagel has also cautioned him on the relevance of his questioning.
Rod and Patti Blagojevich arrived at the courthouse around 9:20 this morning. His attorneys arrived separately.
Blagojevich is now chumming with the spectators in the courtroom, making them laugh. Lon Monk is in witness chair, awaiting the arrival of Judge James Zagel.
Today Blagojevich is wearing an olive-colored suit, lighter than the darker suits he's usually wearing. Monk is wearing the same gray-colored suit.
Sam Adam Jr. is wearing a gray three-piece suit and a pink tie.
A big roar of laughter comes from defense table; they're all sharing a joke.
By Dave McKinney, Chicago Sun-Times
September 17, 2002
SPRINGFIELD -- When it comes to marijuana, gubernatorial hopeful Rod Blagojevich seems to follow the party line of former President Bill Clinton with a slight variation -- he doesn't remember inhaling.
Clinton said he tried pot, but didn't inhale; the congressman told reporters Monday he had a "vivid" recollection of smoking marijuana twice while in his late teens or early 20s, yet couldn't remember if he breathed the smoke into his lungs either time.
Blagojevich was put on the spot one month and a day after House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) indicated that Blagojevich had "indiscretions" in his past but wouldn't identify any of them.
"Did I try marijuana when I was young? The answer is yes," Blagojevich said in a careful response that took 10 seconds to craft following a reporter's question. "Did I use any other kind of illegal drug? The answer is no."
Pressed on whether he inhaled either of those times, he continued: "I don't know if I did or not. I never liked the smell of it, but it was a smell ... all of our generation is very familiar with, and I'm sure I'm not the only one in this room who can recognize that smell."
Told he would have felt a stinging sensation in his lungs had he inhaled, Blagojevich then said, "I probably didn't. You're using a Clinton line on me here. I just don't know. I did it twice. And I was so inept at it, I don't know whether I did or didn't."
Despite his admission, Blagojevich isn't on the cutting edge of Illinois politics on this particular issue. In 1998, before being elected lieutenant governor, Republican Corinne Wood told the Sun-Times she smoked pot -- and inhaled.
And before that, in the 1996 U.S. Senate primary, Republican Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra acknowledged he tried marijuana, prompting similar admissions from his GOP rival, former state Rep. Al Salvi (R-Wauconda), and from former state Treasurer Patrick Quinn, who lost the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination that year and now is Blagojevich's running mate.
Blagojevich, 45, said he was "college-aged" when he experimented with marijuana and that he opposes any effort to legalize the drug.
While few observers believe disclosure of past marijuana use will swing many voters of his generation, who themselves did the same thing on college campuses, Blagojevich and his Republican opponent, Attorney General Jim Ryan, differ on the marijuana use question.
"Jim Ryan has never taken drugs. No experimentation, no use, zero," Ryan spokesman Dan Curry said. "He never had an inclination to break the law. I can't explain it any other way. He had no desire to do drugs."
Blagojevich said he is still trying to figure out exactly what Madigan was talking about last month with his line about "indiscretions," a barb the state Democratic Party chairman threw at Blagojevich after he questioned the speaker's "arrogance" in awarding a controversial state grant to a friend's equestrian project.
"I feel good about the life I've lived, a very honest life, work hard, jog, you know, try to eat the right kinds of foods, don't do anything in excess," Blagojevich said at a press conference to announce the endorsement of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Judge James Zagel has adjourned court for the day, but first he asked defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. how much time he'd need to finish cross-examining Lon Monk.
"Tomorrow," Adam said -- meaning all day.
A pause from the judge. Then, "Umm... sure."
If Adam's cross-examination of Monk ends before the end of the day, we will hear brief testimonies from two witnesses -- David Abel and Vinnie Mazarro.
Next up on the stand will be Joseph Aramanda, a Tony Rezko associate who is accused of siphoning money to Rezko tied to the $10 billion state pension bond deal, which was referenced earlier in testimony.
Before Zagel called it a day, Adam was working on breaking down the line between pay-to-play and politics as usual.
Blagojevich was always going to sign the race track bill, Adam argued, contribution or not.
"At no point did he ever say to you, that (the contribution) is what I want, or I'm not going to sign the bill?" Adam asked Monk.
Adam also painted Monk as a bad friend and untrustworthy employee who lied to both Blagojevich and his clients, the Johnstons.
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner wrapped up his questioning quickly after a break. Monk is now being cross-examined by Michael Ettinger, attorney for brother Robert Blagojevich.
Ettinger appears to be trying to prove that Robert had little to no involvement with the Friends of Blagojevich campaign office for most of the time period in question.
The attorney went year by year from 2001 to 2006, asking Monk if Robert Blagojevich had had any involvement in his brother's fund-raising that year.
Monk's answer was generally no, until 2006, when he said that Robert "wasn't getting paid. He was asked too do a few things, but he wasn't getting paid."
Monk looks a little more relaxed and is looking Ettinger right in the eye. Rod Blagojevich, at the defense table, is staring right at Monk. Ettinger is standing at the lectern in the center of the room.
When Monk met with John Johnston on Dec. 3, 2008, he tried to put the race track owner at ease about making a hefty contribution so close to the signing of a bill that meant millions of dollars in subsidies for his industry.
"I wanted to let him know why the bill wasn't getting signed," Monk testified -- namely, because the governor wanted $100,000 to sign it -- "and as a result, he should give the contribution now,"
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked Monk if Johnston was only worried that the contribution would create a perception of wrongdoing.
"No," Monk said.
The prosecutor asked what Johnston was worried about.
"That we were all doing something wrong in linking the signing and the donation," Monk said.
Prosecutors have played a second recording dealing with the solicitation of a $100,000 contribution from race track owner John Johnston.
On this Nov. 14, 2008 tape, Lon Monk and Robert Blagojevich are again talking about the status of contribution.
"(Johnston) said, 'Tell the big guy I'm good for it. I'm just figuring out which accounts to pull the checks from,'" Monk says on the tape.
But it sounds like Monk is trying to keep Robert Blagojevich in the dark about any wrongdoing.
Monk tells Robert that the timing of the contribution could give the false appearance of a pay-to-play arrangement -- that is, that Johnston's cash could be "buying" him an extension of the subsidies for the horse racing industry.
"There's absolutely no connection between the two," Monk tells Robert on the tape. "There's a legislative issue that I don't want to get in the way."
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked Monk if he did, indeed, think there was a connection between the contribution and the bill.
"Yeah," Monk answered. "There could be."
But Monk didn't want Robert to know that.
"I didn't want him to think that," Monk said. "I had seen Rod try to have discussions with Rob that did not include state action. He tried to keep him out of that area."
Lon Monk is back on the stand saying he witnessed Rod Blagojevich grow upset when he learned the hospital wasn't returning his brother's phone calls soliciting campaign contributions.
"He wasn't happy, he got up and said: 'Screw these guys,' and got on the phone," Monk testified Blagojevich said in a meeting with him and Robert Blagojevich.
Monk said Rod Blagojevich then called the governor's office and talked to an aide about the status of state funds for the hospital.
"Don't do anything with it until I talk to you," Monk said he overheard Rod Blagojevich say.
Lon Monk testified that as a large Illinois tollway expansion, a $1.8 billion road building program, was going to be announced, Rod Blagojevich told Monk he should hit up engineering firms for campaign donations.
"He wanted to put pressure on me to put pressure on them to donate money by the end of the year," Monk said.
Monk told prosecutor Christopher Niewoehner he wouldn't do it, at least not make straight up requests.
"It was just a blatant mixing of fund-raising for state action and vise versa," Monk said.
At one point, the two met with Jerry Krozel, a contractor who was pushing Blagojevich to
approve capital expansion. Though they were talking about state action, they met in the fund-raising office.
Blagojevich asked Krozel for financial "support" at the same meeting. Krozel told Blagojevich would be happy to help.
"It would really incentivize him to really fund-raise for Rod," Monk said.
Krozel was told the expansion would be a boon to the industry and in turn, Blagojevich hoped Krozel would raise $500,000 from others. Rod Blagojevich based that number, which Monk called "unrealistic," on past donations.
As Monk checked up on progress, Krozel said he hit a snag.
"I'm not going to be able to raise money from my members right now because they had been served subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's office," Monk said.
The voices of the Blagojevich brothers are filling the courtroom for the first time as secret FBI recordings are played with Lon Monk on the stand.
Jurors can hear an animated and irritated Rod Blagojevich who is pushing his brother hard to get to $4 million.
Rod Blagojevich is snapping at his brother, telling him to keep hitting people up.
"In terms of having money in the bank, it's going to be close," Rod says. "We've got to somehow get there...get to that $4 million."
Rod tells Rob to keep calling people and ask:
"Can you send us $5,000, can you find us whatever, follow me?"
Rod tells his brother on the recording to hit up anyone and everyone: the Pritzkers, Sam Zell, Blair Hull.
"Every event that we've done with the exception of (state Sen. James) DeLeo have been under the budgeted amount," Robert Blagojevich can be heard saying.
Robert Blagojevich sounds almost alarmist telling his brother that everyone's pulling back on donations.
"The Greeks are falling off," as well as others, he said.
Two more calls are played, including one in which Rod Blagojevich discusses asking Blair Hull for a campaign donation. Hull had expressed his interest in the Senate seat.
Lon Monk is now describing meetings in 2008 where Blagojevich and those close to him would pore over fund-raising lists and set goals for the end of the year.
How high was Blagojevich's fund-raising goal in 2008?
"As high as possible," Monk said.
That's because the ethics law would take effect in 2009, stifling the then-governor's ability to tap into anyone who did significant business with the state.
The sheets of paper jurors are seeing show past donors and had a "low projection" of $2.5 million and a high projection at $3.3 million.
Though Monk was a lobbyist at the time and no longer working for Rod Blagojevich, he still said he played a role in helping raise money for the then-governor. Otherwise their relationship would be "strained," he said.
Monk said Blagojevich pushed them to raise money but they ran into brick walls.
The next election wasn't for another two years.
"A lot of people we were asking for money didn't see a need to be donating money," Monk said.
Plus, there was a presidential election.
"We had Barack Obama in Chicago running for president," and they were hitting up some of the same people, Monk said.
And one more reason: "The economy was not good and there were federal investigations that I'm sure was concerning donors," Monk said.
Blagojevich could not use the money for anything he wanted if he didn't run for governor in 2010.
He could donate it to another candidate or create political action fund or some other entity to promote various issues, Monk said.
Lon Monk starts discussing Robert Blagojevich and his role as a fund-raiser for his brother.
Monk testifies that it was Rod's idea to bring his brother in from Nashville in the fall of 2008 to act as the head of Friends of Blagojevich campaign fund.
Monk identifies the former governor's brother from across the room.
Robert Blagojevich shows no reaction, only calmly staring at Monk.
Monk is now taking jurors through fund-raising lists and photos of the campaign offices.
Jurors see photos of the inside of the office: nice wooden desks and leather chairs.
He is discussing meetings again. This time in the fund-raising office.
Chris Kelly and Tony Rezko, at this point both indicted, are no longer part of the storyline.
Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Chris Kelly and Lon Monk used code names for themselves "when talking about the four of us making money," Monk said -- "1, 2, 3, 4."
Monk said in 2007 or 2008, when he and Blagojevich were alone in Blago's office, they discussed an FBI investigation.
Blagojevich told Monk not to ever talk about the "1, 2, 3, 4" reference.
Monk on the stand silently mimicked Blagojevich's actions, putting up his fingers one at a time, then running a single finger across his throat.
Blagojevich is clearly upset, unsettled in his chair. He leaned forward and stared right at Monk. But at Monk's gesture, Blagojevich sat back hard in his chair and appeared to mutter something.
He's now trying to be contained, hands folded before him.
We're now seeing much evidence of what we've seen in Tony Rezko's trial. But this is key for jurors. Included in today's exhibits were two letters that clearly showed Blagojevich appointed the notorious Stuart Levine to two state boards that had much power over state investments.
That seems to clash with what Sam Adam Jr. told jurors in openings, when he tried to minimize Blagojevich's role in putting Levine on those boards.
Lon Monk testified that both Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly wanted Levine on those boards.
Levine has pleaded guilty to substantial wrongdoing and without a plea deal, could have faced up to life in prison, instead of five years.
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner is questioning Monk about a 2003 proposal to combine several state pension boards and the backlash that followed within the governor's circle.
Former fund-raiser Chris Kelly argued at the time that Blagojevich should not combine the boards -- that having fewer total board seats would make it harder for Blagojevich to fund-raise and assert influence over those boards, Monk said.
"It would be easier to make appointments and influence the boards if they remained separate," Monk said. "If you have more people to appoint to these boards, you're going to have more points of contact."
Blagojevich inevitably decided against combining the boards.
Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner is questioning Lon Monk about appointments that Blagojevich made to a list of unpaid positions on state boards and commissions in 2003 and 2004.
Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly brought forward a list of recommendations for these at positions -- mostly people who had made sizable contributions or could be counted on to make sizable contributions, Monk testified.
They were "people who would support the governor's agenda, potentially donate money," Monk said. The appointments were a fund-raising tool, he said.
Rezko said that "some of these board spots were high-profile enough and prestigious enough ... that at a minimum some of these people ought to be donating $25,000," Monk said.
These were positions like trusteeships at the University of Illinois, the State Board of Investment, and the like, Monk said.
Blagojevich called these positions his "ambassadorships," Monk said -- referring to the notion that ambassadorships are appointed by presidents as a thank-you for big campaign contributions.
One of those most publicized appointments was that of Ali Ata, former director of the Illinois Finance Authority. Niewoehner is questioning Monk on that appointment.
Prosecutor Reid Schar started the morning by complaining that Blagojevich was gesturing inappropriately to people in the courtroom. Schar said jurors were distracted by his gesturing.
He said Blagojevich made it "audibly clear in his displeasure continuously looking over, gesturing to people in the pews."
Schar said it was "not proper decorum. It's clearly distracting."
Blagojevich, sitting down, frowned.
Zagel told him to stop. "By and large it's for their own benefit," he said.
Also, Patti will have to leave the courtroom later as Monk is expected to discuss her in testimony.
During the morning discussion about testimony, Rod kissed Patti on the cheek.
Monk again walked in and looked away from Rod, taking the long route around and away from his old friend. He ended up running into a microphone that was sticking out from the jury box in his path.
Bizzarely, two former federal defendants -- convicted City Clerk James Laski and convicted extortionist Derrick Mosseley -- are sitting in the courtroom as spectators, opposite one another.
Laski, who has written a book about public corruption, is here with a media pass. Laski is acting as a commentator for WGN.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich trial day 6 will feature expanded testimony from Lon Monk, who started dishing considerably against his old friend and boss during his first day on the stand Wednesday.
EXPECTED TODAY: The government could begin playing the first, much-anticipated secret FBI recordings today. Since Monk's cell phone was tapped, he'll have a bunch of calls to discuss.
MONK'S KEY POINTS FROM WEDNESDAY:
Good for prosecutors: OK, Lon Monk went on family vacations with Rod and Patti Blagojevich, he even lived with the couple when he returned to Chicago to take a job in the governor's administration back in 2002. So prosecutors made it crystal clear that Monk is close to the former governor and maybe that makes him more believable to jurors.
•Monk said he witnessed Blagojevich in meetings where the former governor agreed
he'd use his influence to help his friends -- and himself -- make money off of state deals.
•Monk says $500,000 was funneled into a secret bank account and it was to be split in four, with a share going to Rod Blagojevich after he left office.
Good for Blagojevich: Monk said he never saw a dime from the $500,000 that Tony Rezko took as a kickback payment for steering a state deal to a firm he and Kelly hand-picked. That means he didn't see Blagojevich ever dip into that money either.
"Do you know what happened to it?" Prosecutor Chris Niewoehner asked. Monk: "No."
Rod Blagojevich and his defense team will refrain from making statements to the press while a witness is on the stand, Sam Adam Jr. told reporters after court today.
That means he won't say anything publicly about Lon Monk's testimony until after the defense has cross-examined him.
"We want to respect Judge Zagel, we want to respect the court, we want to respect the process," Adam said.
"Don't blame Rod," he said, adding that maintaining radio silence was his idea and not Zagel's.
Secret FBI recordings of Rod Blagojevich and his top aides will be made public as they're played in court, Judge James Zagel said today at the trial's conclusion.
Zagel cautioned that they cannot be released until the defense has its chance to cross examine the witness on the recordings.
That's tough from a media standpoint because we may hear stuff one day in court but will have to wait days before we're able to publish it to the public.
We may hear recordings tomorrow, since Monk, by his own account, is on many of them.
His cell phone was tapped by the FBI in the fall of 2008.
Rod Blagojevich was worried about money in the year after he won the governor's seat in 2002. Patti's real estate firm had taken a hit since she'd become first lady, and the family was forced to live on Rod's $160,000-or-so governor's salary, Monk testified.
It didn't help that Rod liked to buy expensive suits, he said.
But Rod's money worries were bad news for Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly, Monk said.
"They didn't want Rod and Patti to really be worried about finances, because they didn't want finances to be the reason why he may not run for re-election or run for higher office," Monk said.
The higher office Rezko and Kelly had in mind?
"At one point, president of the United States," Monk said.
They were eying the 2008 election, Monk said, because "2004 would have been premature for someone who had just become governor."
Rod Blagojevich is livid and cannot contain the anger he's reflecting as Lon Monk finally gets to the meat of his remarks: he puts Rod Blagojevich in the room when there was a discussion to divvy up hundreds of thousands of dollars made through state action.
Monk described a 2003 meeting in which Blagojevich, Monk, Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly are all in the room talking about how to make money off of state deals. He said one of Rezko's ideas involved creating an insurance agency that would make money by getting business from the state. Blagojevich presumably would be sure he directed the control appropriately.
Monk says that Rezko led the discussion and on a blackboard puts up nine different ideas that would make each of them money. Each idea was worth about $100,000 he said.
What was the thrust of the meeting: "How the four of us could make money different ways."
Who was going to make money off the deals?
"The four of us," Monk said.
How was that money going to be divided? "Equally," Monk said. "All told, hundreds of thousands of dollars ... in total."
In court, Blagojevich appears angry and is almost smiling at times, shakes his head and shoots glances at the prosecutor and Monk.
Monk said Blagojevich agreed not to take the money until after he was out of office.
"Because we didn't want anyone to know what was going on," Monk said. "There wouldn't be as much scrutiny. ... "In all liklihood (it was) wrong and we would be breaking the law."
The exchange wasn't lost on jurors; several of them were furiously taking notes during the questioning.
Lon Monk, former close friend and fund-raiser for Rod Blagojevich, is back on the stand.
Before the lunch break, prosecutor Chris Niewoehner questioned Monk about his involvement in Blagojevich's 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Now he's asking about the transition period between his win and when he took office in January 2003.
There were 30 to 35 "senior positions" in state agencies that needed to be filled, Monk said -- heads of the Department of Human Services, public health directors, general counsel, and the like.
Monk helped to fill those spots, he said, along with Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly.
"Were these people going to be Blagojevich's closest advisers?" Niewoehner asked. Monk said yes.
The prosecutor asked who had the most success placing people in these senior positions in the Blagojevich administration.
"Probably Tony Rezko, Chris (Kelly) and (2002 Blagojevich campaign chairman) David Wilhelm," Monk said.
Political appointees in that round included heads of the state transportation agency and the Illinois Tollway, he said.
Rod scribbled furiously in his notebook as Monk talked about filling jobs.
Prosecutors yesterday said money was political power for Rod Blagojevich.
If that's the case, Blagojevich's power rose exponentially in his first two elections, then plummeted by 2008, according to charts prosecutors are showing jurors right now.
In his 2002 election, Blagojevich raised $23 million, racing far past his opponents.
In the 2006 gubernatorial election, it was at $27 million. His Republican opponent, Judy Baar Topinka had a mere $9.9 million.
The prosecution is trying to show jurors how much money he amassed and that it was substantially more than his opponents.
The government is also trying to show that Blago's campaign fund diminished significantly before his arrest. Yesterday, they said he was personally $200,000 in debt in fall 2008.
Defense attorney Aaron Goldstein is now cross-examining Cain.
FBI agent Dan Cain says his office was secretly recording 10 different phones or places in the Rod Blagojevich probe. The recordings happened Oct. 22, 2008 through Dec. 9, 2008 -- the day the ex-governor was arrested.
The recordings include two "bugs" and eight wiretaps of cell phones and desk phones -- including Rod's cell and home phones, Robert's cell, John Harris' cell and desk phone, Lon Monk's cell, and bugs and wiretaps in Blago's campaign office.
Cain says 5,000 calls were wire tapped and 1,100 of those are relevant to the case.
Bottom line: Cain presents a disk of about 100 conversations that the government will play at trial.
He is setting up Lon Monk, who will testify next. If Monk wants to refer to a recorded call, it will now be in evidence.
In the courtroom today is Patti's sister, state Rep. Deb Mell. She is sitting next to her sister in the front row.
Robert Blagojevich's wife, Julie, is not here today.
How does Rod Blagojevich's defense team feel about the case coming out of opening statements?
"We're no less than even," Sam Adam Sr. told me yesterday minutes after his son delivered rousing opening statements.
Rod Blagojevich was all smiles himself.
It was a drastic change from Blagojevich's demeanor as prosecutors hammered away at him.
As prosecutor Carrie Hamilton talked about shakedown schemes, Blagojevich bit his lip, looked down and wrote furiously. Sometimes it seemed he was forcing himself to write just to distract himself.
Other times, he'd lose himself and stare right at Hamilton looking like he wanted to explode.
By the time he left the building, rushing off to his daughter's graduation, he was shaking hands and glowing again.
Today, events will turn again as an FBI agent takes the stand first to give an overview of the case against him.
Of all the Rod Blagojevich witnesses expected in this trial, no one's cooperation personally hurts the former governor more than Lon Monk.
Monk was Blagojevich's running buddy, his law school roommate, his groomsman.
Monk's parents even attended Blagojevich's wedding.
But today, Monk will be on the stand for the government.
Monk, whose cell phone was among those wiretapped in the Blagojevich corruption probe in 2008, can take prosecutors through numerous alleged corruption schemes beginning when Blagojevich first took office in 2003.
Monk will say he took cash pay offs from political fixer Tony Rezko, among other schemes. Monk also worked as Blagojevich's chief of staff.
In opening statements yesterday, attorney Sam Adam Jr. noted Monk was the California guy with "beautiful hair." He then paused and looked at Blagojevich, rattling off a line that made more jurors laugh than most things Adam said over two hours:
It was an early morning for Rod Blagojevich. He started the day with an interview on WLS Radio's "The Don and Roma Morning Show." (The ex-governor quipped during an appearance on the show last week that he may become a regular correspondent; maybe he was being serious.)
"It¹s good to be in the courtroom," Blagojevich said on the air. "It¹s the beginning of the process that will unlock the truth."
His optimism continued when he and Patti arrived at the courthouse.
"Opening statements will hopefully begin tomorrow," he told reporters. "And that, essentially, means the key to the truth will be in our hands."
The Blagojeviches and their attorneys now sit in Judge James Zagel's courtroom, waiting for jury selection to continue.
Lawyers will begin by tossing some of the jurors questioned last week. It's likely jury questioning will conclude by day's end.
After tossing nine people and questioning another eight, the parties have taken a break for lunch.
The second day of jury selection exposed another group of people who had all heard about the charges against the former governor but who said they could still be fair.
It also revealed that media and public interest has already fallen off. The main courtroom was half full compared to one day ago. It's not likely to fill up again until opening statements.
Among those questioned this morning was a man who was born in Camp Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. He went on to serve as a staff Sgt. in the U.S. Marine Corps. The man's wife worked for Chicago Public Schools, he said.
Also questioned was a department of homeland security employee recently promoted from baggage inspector at O'Hare to safety specialist and the president of the largest neighborhood group in Joliet.
On day two of the trial, Rod and Patti walked into the courthouse together again.
This morning it was Blagojevich who spoke to reporters. The former governor praised U.S. District Judge James Zagel for running a tight ship.
"We've been lied about and falsely accused," Blagojevich said. "I know I'll
be vindicated."
Much to the chagrin of dozens of reporters camped out in the lobby of the Dirksen Building, the Blagojeviches and their attorneys left today with hardly a word.
Robert Blagojevich was the first to go. He left the courtroom alone at about 5 p.m., shortly after Judge James Zagel adjourned jury selection for the day.
Rod and Patti were escorted out of the building by court personnel about 15 minutes later, passing a scant crowd of reporters and onlookers poised outside with cell phone cameras.
The former governor waved and smiled at the group -- yelling "How's everybody doing?" -- before helping Patti hop a large puddle to climb into the back seat of a white Infiniti.
A cluster of defense attorneys stuck around upstairs until almost 6 p.m., then slipped out with barely a word toward a bay of video cameras.
Jury selection will resume at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
First, attorneys will argue to cut loose those potential jurors whom they believe to be biased based on their questioning today. When that process is complete, the next group of potentials will be brought in.
Sam Adam Sr. and his son have arrived but were uncharacteristically camera-shy. Before reaching the microphones, son adjusted dad's collar.
Sam Adam Sr. then went flat.
"Good morning, good morning," he only said.
When asked about subpeonas of Valerie Jarrett and Emanuel, he stopped. "Nah, nah, nah, nah. That isn't fair," he objected. "My mother always taught me manners ... So I'm saying good morning."
The father and son team walked off without saying more or answering questions about Blagojevich. Perhaps they're leaving the limelight today for their client?
As dozens of reporters still await the former governor's arrival this morning, we've so far only heard from one of his lawyers.
Shelly Sorosky said the defense wants Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett to take the stand because they'll say Rod Blagojevich didn't do anything wrong.
"We are certainly looking forward to their testimony," Sorosky said. "I think (Emanuel) will perhaps relay the governor didn't do anything wrong or criminally wrong."
Rod and Rob Blagojevich are expected to arrive just before the 11 a.m. start time on jury selection.
The U.S. Marshals used yellow tape to cordon off an area for Blagojevich to walk into the federal building and presumably to keep us in the media from trampling one another.
It looks like crime scene tape.
Not exactly a red carpet.
There are some people from the public, holding cell phones and awaiting his arrival. One is shouting something nonsensical about Donald Trump's building. Another is carrying a home-made sign, white poster board with black writing.
"If a man can't talk crap in his own home, then take my husband please!"
Another woman is holding a sign: "Rod's not cuckoo, Rod's not guilty."
Six years after the investigation began, 18 months after his arrest, and 17 months after he launched a national media blitz that included everything from "The View" to Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," the day is finally upon us.
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- and his brother -- will arrive shortly in federal court to face extensive corruption charges.
Jury selection begins this morning, with attorneys whittling down a group of 100 potential jurors, a process that's expected to take three or four days.
There's already a line outside the courtroom where Rod Blagojevich and his brother will stand trial, beginning with jury selection today.
The first person in line is Susan Berger, a freelance reporter who authors the blog: blagojustice.com. She arrived at 6 a.m.
A Statehouse News reporter says he arrived at the courthouse at 5:30 a.m., an AP photographer says he was here at 5 a.m. to get good positioning in the lobby's "bullpen" and it's rumored some poor Fox News intern was sent here at 4 a.m.
The kicker though is that Rod Blagojevich might not even show up until close to 11 a.m. today.
Lawyers had a late night looking through jury questionnaires and defense attorneys were told they don't have to be here until 11. There's a 9:30 a.m. hearing today on media access to jurors' information but defense lawyers say they were told they don't have to attend.
There's a handful of TV and print reporters and camera crews outside the federal courthouse.
The word on Blago: He originally was scheduled to arrive outside the courthouse at 9:15 a.m. The U.S. Marshals Service will barricade Dearborn Street every day to allow him controlled entry. They've asked him not to give interviews except in a designated "media pit," which is inside the courthouse's main lobby.
Rod Blagojevich's renewed request to delay the trial was once again rejected today, setting the stage for jury selection tomorrow morning -- right on schedule.
That in and of itself is something of a feat, given the kinds of delays typical in such high profile trials.
The 2005-2006 trial of former Gov. George Ryan was delayed for months after Ryan made a personal plea to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to wait until the lawyer of his choice -- Dan Webb -- was through with another trial. Pallmeyer granted the delay after prosecutors turned over key documents revealing their strategy to the defense.
Not the case here.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel said today that lawyers will draw from a pool of nearly 100 potential jurors. Today, those potential jurors are filling out a questionnaire that contains more than 100 questions, including whether they had seen Rod Blagojevich on television and whether the viewing mars their view of him, one way or another.
Tomorrow, 34 people from that pool will be called in for questioning.
"I very much doubt we'll have a jury at the end of the first day," Zagel said.
He may have been the only person in the room who thought that was even a remote possibility.
Zagel predicted it will take three or four days before a jury is selected. With selection happening Thursday and Friday, we could have opening statements by early next week.
There will be 12 jurors selected and probably six alternates, defense lawyers Shelly Sorosky and Michael Ettinger said after court.
Defense lawyers will be given 13 preemptory challenges -- or the means to get rid of 13 jurors for any reason. The prosecution gets nine of those.
There's an infinite number of potential dismissals "for cause," meaning anyone who says (or the parties believe) he or she cannot be fair and impartial.
Former political fund-raiser Tony Rezko's name will likely be invoked numerous times in Rod Blagojevich's trial -- but chances are, jurors won't ever see his face.
Sources with knowledge of the government's case say prosecutors are worried that Rezko is too risky to put on the stand.
According to the sources, prosecutors fear Rezko brings with him much baggage of his own, could create a distraction, and worry that he'll "go off the reservation" if he testifies.
Rezko was convicted on his own corruption charges in 2008. Earlier that year, he accused prosecutors -- the same trio gearing up to try the Blagojevich case -- of pressuring him to lie about Blagojevich and then-Sen. Barack Obama.
Since his most captive audience will now be potential jurors in his corruption trial, Rod Blagojevich will no longer host a weekly radio show on WLS, officials there said this morning.
Also today:
-- Blagojevich judge says trial will start tomorrow -- right on time. To read: Click here
-- Chicago Sun-Times reports that Tony Rezko is unlikely to take the stand in the Blagojevich trial. To read: Click here
While he's a criminal defendant in court, Rod Blagojevich will not be as radio show host on Sunday mornings, WLS-AM officials announced this morning.
They say they won't run the program while Blagojevich's corruption trial is underway.
The trial begins with jury selection tomorrow.
WLS announced Blagojevich's radio respite during his appearance on the "Don Wade and Roma Morning Show," this morning.
On the show, Blagojevich said he's looking forward to taking the stand and reiterated that he never intended to sell the Senate seat. He said he planned to "hold his nose" and appoint Lisa Madigan, the son of his political nemesis, in exchange for the passage of a legislative package.
In the days following Rod Blagojevich's arrest 18 months ago, shame hung over the ex-governor's Ravenswood Manor home.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced that Blagojevich had brought Illinois to "a new low." And Blago retreated, braving a swarm of reporters only for his morning runs.
Then he hired publicist Glenn Selig, of The Publicity Agency -- and the game changed.
Since then, Blagojevich has done more than 100 radio, TV and print interviews. He's gotten "fired" by Donald Trump, started a weekly radio show on WLS-AM, and gave an ethics talk to a snickering crowd at Northwestern University.
The questions remain: Will Blago continue his media binge once his trial starts Thursday? And will this strategy do the ex-governor more harm or good?
Also on Tuesday, attorneys for Blagojevich filed a motion asking Judge James Zagel yet again to start from scratch with selecting jurors for the case.
The defense team has complained that Zagel tossed out three-quarters of the 400 potential jurors who claimed that the trial would be a financial hardship for them.
