Constitutional Law

Prosecutor Seeks Burris-Blago Tapes

In an investigation into whether Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) perjured himself, a county prosecutor is requesting FBI tapes of discussions between Burris and Robert Blagojevich, the brother of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

A report last month revealed that Robert Blagojevich requested that Burris solicit contributions to the governor's re-election campaign fund. Since then, Burris has admitted to three conversations with the former governor's brother. Those conversations took place in October and November. Meanwhile, federal authorities began taping calls related to their corruption investigation in mid-October. Burris has also admitted to having sought contributions to the governor's re-election campaign after those calls.

Burris testified before an Illinois House impeachment panel on January 8, failing to disclose any of the conversations that had taken place with the governor or associates. At that time, Burris submitted an affidavit saying that he had no contact with anyone close to the governor until a Blagojevich attorney approached him about the matter.

Perjury is an intentional misstatement of a material fact under oath. Whether federal authorities will share the tapes with Illinois prosecutors has yet to be determined.

No reply has been provided by the senator's office. However, Burris launched an aggressive public relations campaign this week, with observers questioning whether he was positioning himself to run for a 2010 campaign.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 06, 2009 (boomark / email).