Legal News

Genson and Blago Dive Down the Rabbit Hole in Chicago

By Dan Slater

He doesn’t quit fighting. He may make a joke one minute to get somebody off their guard, then the next thing he’s got your spine in his teeth. — Terry Sullivan, a former state prosecutor, on Eddie Genson, New York Times, Dec. 18, 2008.

Edward M. Genson leaves his office after meeting with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his wife Patti Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Chicago. (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

It’s far from a turning of the tides. But yesterday’s news that the Illinois Supreme Court rejected a petition by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to remove besieged Gov. Rod Blagojevich certainly marked the first positive development for the besieged Blago.

It was also the first time that we got to see Blago’s new legal eagle, Eddie Genson, in action. Genson arrived at the state capitol with a host of objections to the impeachment process, which is just getting under way. (For a brief LB bio of Genson, click here.)

Genson, according to a report in the WSJ, started the hearing yesterday by asking that three members recuse themselves because they made statements suggesting they had already made up their minds about Blago. Genson also asked the panel for more time to prepare.

The panel denied him on both requests, but that apparently didn’t discourage Genson. Without the panel establishing rules of evidence and due process, he likened the proceeding to “Alice in Wonderland.”

Genson then reportedly urged the committee members not to compromise their roles as jurists because of public pressure. “We have a terrible, terrible public-relations problem, and people want to see something done,” Genson said. “But still, you have an obligation under the Constitution” to afford Mr. Blagojevich his rights.

However, the chair of the committee, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Democrat, countered: “We’re not a court of law… We’re not bound by specific rules of evidence.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).