Legal Commentary

How Strong is the Legal Case Against Blagojevich?

By Jeralyn

Attorney Maureen Martin makes the legal case for Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the Chicago Tribune today.

She says it's questionable whether a federal crime was committed and Fitz should have waited for the grand jury to indict before arresting him. She says this should be a state bribery case, brought in state court.

Food for thought. A few of her arguments are below:

The first count against Blagojevich alleges he and his chief of staff, John Harris, "schemed to defraud" the people of Illinois of their "honest services." Although the supporting 76-page affidavit is juicy, almost all of it is uncorroborated hearsay supplied by witnesses who were just one side of two-sided in-person conversations with one or both defendants. This supports lodging of state charges. But no matter how heinous the conduct of Blagojevich and Harris, none of it amounts to a federal crime without the use of interstate commerce—the mail or telephone lines—to further the scheme.

Though the federal investigation has been ongoing for five years, agents have been recording telephone calls only since Oct. 21. The language of the complaint makes it clear there isn't yet enough evidence for an indictment: It alleges the accused "would" use interstate communications to further the scheme, not that they "did" use them. It's questionable whether this first paragraph of the complaint sufficiently alleges a federal crime.

On the Chicago Tribune charges:

This paragraph alleges Blagojevich wanted the firing of members of the Chicago Tribune editorial board so that he could get favorable editorial publicity. He threaten to withhold state money for Tribune-owned Wrigley Field renovations if his demands were not meet.

Is favorable publicity "anything of value" to Blagojevich, or must the "value" be monetary? The courts haven't answered this question yet, and it could go either way.

From a public relations standpoint, I doubt the public cares whether he committed a state or federal crime.

Also, from my viewpoint, Blagojevich should be happy he got charged in federal as opposed to state court. I can only imagine how bad the conditions in an Illinois state prison would be compared to a minimum security federal prison camp.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).