Recently News Rod Blagojevich

Recently News Rod Blagojevich: It’s been nearly 3 years since former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich stole the national spotlight later being caught for dozens of counts of corruption, admitting attempting to sell then-Sen. Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Today, later 2 fact shows, a mistrial, and an extended, confusing second trial for the former governor, Blagojevich was found guilty of seventeen counts of corruption, admitting selling the President’s former Senate seat. The verdict was announced today a little later 3 PM, after the 1st trial ended with Blagojevich not being convicted in twenty-three of his twenty-four corruption charges (he was found guilty of one minor charge of lying to the FBI). In this one, he escaped 3 of the twenty charges one “not guilty” and 2 “no verdicts but was convicted of a lot of counts of wire fraud and bribery, in particular the primary charge of selling the President’s seat. No word yet on how much jail time, if any, the charges will translate into. In the meantime, many Illinois media outlets have compiled “best of” retrospectives on Blagojevich’s rise to national ignominy; this one by Central Illinois radio station WJBC is particularly comprehensive. The 2nd Blagojevich trial, while receiving significantly less media attention, played out somewhat differently from the 1st trial. While keeping most of the comical shenanigans– threats for contempt of court, arbitrary deployment of the race card, etc. that made the 1st trial a must-cover news story, the 2nd trial also featured Blagojevich keeping his promise to testify in his own defense. The latter is a choice now many are considering a risk that brought down the governor, though the new sets of tapes produced on trial also did little to exonerate him. While he had several times noted that, later being found innocent of most crimes in the 1st trial, he was eyeing a come back to politics soon, this now seems impossibility as well as his other side careers on fact TV, giving ethics lectures, and singing the finest of Elvis Prestley aside Fabio impersonators. Fare thee well, Blago, you gave the media as much joy as you gave your constituents grief.