Breaking: Verdict in Blago Case ~~ Guilty One Count of Perjury ~~ Jury hung on 23 other counts

[Hepburn]

Source: MSNBC

Not announced yet ~~ MSNBC standing by at the courthouse.

Will up date as more comes in.

No link yet.

[Hepburn]

1. 24 counts pending...

...Blago and atty at courthouse.

[SDuderstadt]

2. I hope they nail him.,,n/t

[Hepburn]

3. IMO, he is gonna walk on some of the charges and they are hung on a few of them.

I don't think the govt had all they thought they had when they went to trial. On the other hand, the defense went on about Blago testifying and he did not. Rule #1: Never promise a jury something and then fail to deliver.

[Hepburn]

4. Jury has just entered the courtroom....have verdict soon. n/t

[Hepburn]

5. One Unanimous Guilty Verdict ~~ Hung on 23 counts...

...Convicted on one perjury charge.

[PatSeg]

8. Unbelievable!

Just heard it on TV and I'm stunned.

[Hepburn]

9. IMO, the govt waaaaaaaaaaaay overcharged on this one.

Prosecutors always overcharge. I think they were expecting Blago to cop to something and the matter would go away. The govt IMO did not expect him to go to trial.

I am surprised, tho, that they hung on 23 of 23, tho. That tells me the govt case most likely was weak.

[WheelWalker]

17. Actually, the conviction rate for fed prosecutors is over 95%. I think,

rather than over charging in this case, the prosecutors just gave any jury to big a mouthful to swallow all at once. 24 complicated counts. Too much. Like having to take a sip out of a fire hose.

[seattleblue]

21. This case was a house of cards built on government witness perjury.

Not one of their charges was supported by the evidence presented at trial. The government had all sorts of witnesses they said they were going to call and never did because they were convicted felons and liars. Instead the government used the media as their courtroom saying what the witnesses were going to testify to when called. They knew potential jurors would hear this. Then of course they never called them so they could not be cross examined.

[spotbird]

24. Patrick Fitzgerald's attempt to taint the jury was

despicable.

[WheelWalker]

20. I agree. Especially that they COULD convict on this count. Personally, I am offended

by the fact that one can go to prison for lying to the FBI. It's not like he was under oath. It just goes to show how stupid Blago really is, because if he had followed Interrogation - 101, he would have kept his damn mouth shut and he'd not been even been charged with the count he's been convicted on.

[ColesCountyDem]

6. Jury reaches verdict in Blagoevich trial....

Source: Yahoo/AP

Breaking:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_blagojevich_trial

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_blagojevich_trial

[ProudDad]

29. That's what I figured

He's a blowhard, not always smart but...

He's not a crook (or any more crooked than any successful USAmerican "politician")...

So the only thing they had was Catch-22...

Bust someone on bullshit...

Then try to get them to prevaricate while in the early, unprepared stages of defending oneself from the bullshit...

Thereby getting them on a felony...

Common DOJ tactic...

[Downwinder]

48. He is a "politician," would you expect the truth?

[Hepburn]

7. This is a HUGE setback for the govt, IMO.

The perjury charge hold a max poss of 5 in the slam...but I doubt if that would be the sentence.

No news on the split on the other 23 counts ~~ that IMO will be interesting.

[Usrename]

27. It isn't perjury!

He was never under oath!

Shees Louise. They did the same thing to Martha Stewart. There is no underlying crime at this point. There is no obstruction of justice like in the Scooter Libby case.

This is bullshit.

[sabrina 1]

31. Thank you.

That law is rarely used and only when the government wants to 'get' someone. Lying is not a crime, if it were everyone would be in jail. Lying to cops and the FBI should never have been made a crime, the law has always been controversial and should be stricken from the books.

Martha Stewart was rail-roaded by a Republican prosecutor mainly because she was a Democrat. There was never any proof, in fact the evidence was in her favor, that she was involved in insider trading, nor was she convicted of that. But most people today still think that is what she was convicted of.

[ColesCountyDem]

46. No, it's simple obstruction of justice.

It's a fairly low-level felony, as felonies go.

[Usrename]

47. There has to be an underlying crime.

If there is no underlying crime there cannot be any obstruction of justice. The Scooter Libby case is a good example. In that case an actual crime was committed and then justice was obstructed when the investigation of that crime was thwarted. In the Martha Stewart case it turned out that the "crime" the FBI was investigating was a perfectly legal transaction which I believe is also true with Blagojevich.

I do remember complaining complaining upon his arrest that Chris Dodd had just demanded that the head of GM be fired as a condition of GM receiving government funds while Blago was handcuffed and trotted off to jail for doing the exact same thing in his home state.

[ColesCountyDem]

52. Actually, there doesn't have to be.

Impeding or obstructing the investigation itself IS the crime, regardless of whether or not what the person lies ABOUT is a crime.

[Usrename]

53. What difference does it make if he lied?

What difference does it make if he lied about whether or not he tracks donations and donors?

There's no crime here either way, if he did or didn't track donors. Right? Is it a crime to get your answers wrong when the feds question you about something like this?

[ColesCountyDem]

54. Lying to the FBI during an investigation is a punishable offense.

It may not seem logical, especially when what one lies about is not itself a crime, yet it is a punishable felony offense. The legal justification ( sic ) is that it wastes time, money and other resources, i.e., 'waste'. Most states have identical criminal statutes.

[Usrename]

56. yes, the waste of time would be the defendant's fault.

But only if they were investigating a crime in the first place.

What you are saying is that the FBI has the power to create crimes by the act of questioning people.

Right?

Is that how the presumption of innocence works?

[ColesCountyDem]

59. Logically, the FBI doesn't 'create' the crime.

The crime actually occurs when the defendant lies to the investigators, and not before that. I've had clients charged with 'obstruction of justice' under Illinois' criminal code, but their lies were substantive ones-- identity, date of birth, whether or not they were driving the vehicle involved in an accident, etc.-- and were plainly intended to deceive in order to avoid arrest or responsibility.

You've caught on to how easy it is to potentially abuse this sort of statute, something most lay people don't ever understand.

:hi:

[harun]

51. What a waste of money.

[derby378]

10. BREAKING: Government WILL retry the other 23 charges

Live report here:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as-seen-on/blagojevich-trial-dirksen-100484454.html

[PatSeg]

13. The government has spent too much time and money

to just let it go.

[Hepburn]

15. Boy, do I agree on that one. What a waste of time. n/t

[alp227]

11. I'm watching CNN now, and the one count convicted was on false statements.

Damn. This along with the upcoming trials (will there be?) of Reps. Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters will hammer us big time come November.

And this after Tom DeLay's case got delayed? Wow, Republicans sure get away with everything in America.

Oh, at least Bill Clinton got acquitted of perjury...but by Congress, not a jury of citizens.

[FreeState]

16. Isn't that what Martha Stewart was convicted of too? n/t

[Usrename]

28. Exactly!

At the height of the Wall Street corruption they got Martha, as if she was the evil genius behind Enron.

At the height of the Washington insider scandals they got Blago, as if he is the evil genius behind the culture of corruption in Washington.

It's total crap.

[sabrina 1]

32. Bill Clinton did not commit perjury so it would have been hard to get him

convicted of it. To commit perjury the testimony, (lies) have to have a material effect on a trial. Clinton's 'obfuscations' were made in a deposition for a trial that was thrown out on its merits, so his testimony had no material effect on anything.

[Senator]

12. Gergen's steaming -- "loser" "sleazebag" "blowhard"

All in the first sentence.

Relax David, you'll get at least one retrial.

----

[spotbird]

22. None of which are crimes

this was political.

[Senator]

33. Gergen's the crime

Two minutes after whining about not being able to "get him! get him!" he was whining (along with Matalin) about his fear of "heavy handed" prosecutors who might call his new DC friends to testify.

Political alright -- but of the "new and improved" post-partisan/bipartisan Avaristocratic kind.

--

[NashVegas]

14. Blago v Paterson

NY Governor Paterson took in $500k in campaign donations from Gilibrand's backers. Just FYI.

[texastoast]

18. Smarmball

Yech!

I hope the Dems learned a vetting lesson from this pond scum.

[seattleblue]

19. Sorry to see the jury gave in and threw Fitzgerald a bone.

Blago was innocent on all the charges but the jury felt they had to give the government something or else they would look "bad". I have seen it many times before. Now the government will threaten to use all their resources to try him again and he has no money left. They will attempt to get him to take a plea in return for dropping a retrial. A real injustice going on there.

[Hepburn]

25. My read on this is exactly the same. n/t

[slackmaster]

23. Sounds like the fix is in

:argh:

[LawnKorn]

26. Enough money down the drain on this one - just end it now and lets get to more important things

n/t

[ProudDad]

30. Just what I figured

He's a blowhard, not always smart but...

He's not a crook (or any more crooked than any successful USAmerican "politician")...

So the only thing they had was Catch-22...

Bust someone on bullshit...

Then try to get them to prevaricate while in the early, unprepared stages of defending oneself from the bullshit...

Thereby getting them on a felony...

Common DOJ tactic...

[sabrina 1]

34. Which is why you should never talk to law-enforcement, ever, once

you know they are after you.

[jberryhill]

35. So Much For FitzPatrick's Slam Dunk

Yeah, real clear case there Mr. F., real clear.

[chelsea0011]

36. Well, there's a ton of money well spent, And they want to re-try him?

[Brooklyns_Finest]

37. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAQv6KTfQow

[BeyondGeography]

38. Sheer vanity if they charge him again

Which means it'll probably happen.

[abqmufc]

39. Blago found guilty on 1 of 24 counts (lesser)

Source: NPR

A federal jury deadlocked Tuesday on all but one of 24 charges against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, including the most explosive of all — that he tried to sell an appointment to President Obama's old Senate seat. Blagojevich was convicted on a single count of lying to federal agents, one of the least serious charges.

Prosecutors pledged to retry the case as soon as possible.

"This jury shows you that the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me," Blagojevich said later outside court. "They could not prove I did anything wrong — except for one nebulous charge from five years ago."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129260000&sc=fb&cc=fp

---

"Fuck you pay me" wins...

[CreekDog]

40. I'm never getting my hopes up about Fitzgerald again

what is with this guy? am i missing something or is he simply not all that good at what he does?

[ozymandius]

41. Maybe he's good at discovery but bad at trial.

Just guessing here with two polar examples: I know really good attorneys who can make any evidence do the foxtrot in trial. I also know great attorneys who can discover flaming hot evidence but struggle to sell it to the jury.

[maddezmom]

42. Blagojevich Jury Might Be Close To Wrapping Up

Source: CBS2

Jurors in the trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Robert, indicated in a new note Tuesday that they might be close to wrapping up for deliberations, asking for a copy of their oath and for additional instructions on filling out their verdict form.

Jurors sent U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel a new note Tuesday, asking for two things. First, they requested a copy of the oath they took when sworn in. It was not immediately clear why.

Next, jurors asked if they are supposed to leave their verdict form blank on charges for which they have not reached an agreement, or report a split vote.

Judge Zagel said he would send the jury a copy of their oath, along with a note saying they should indicate on the jury form which charges on which they cannot agree, but "do not indicate in any way the numeric split among you."



Read more: http://cbs2chicago.com/governor/blagojevich.jury.deliberations.2.1863904.html

[midnight]

43. I wish I understood all this court stuff. So does this Gov.

get to go home, or are they putting him in jail?

[seattleblue]

45. He was found guilty of one charge.

It is likely the judge will not sentence him on that count until there is a final disposition of the other charges. If the feds try for a plea agreement, and they will, the prosecution recommendation for the sentence on that charge would be one of the things to be negotiated along with the other charges.

[Change Happens]

44. Blago for Gov!!!!

[X_Digger]

49. How many jurors were paid off? n/t

[Doctor_J]

50. I hope they don't waste another wad of money re-trying

There are better things to do with the cash

[Kolesar]

55. This morning, Bill Press said "fire Fitzgerald"

and drop the case. I agree.

Edit: Bill Press has a show on Sirius satellite

[Corey_Baker08]

57. I Support the Former Governor & It Would Be Absurd To Waste More Money Trying to Re-Prosecute Him!

Drop the other 23 charges and let it go. I believe Rod is a genuinely good guy who made a mistake and was found guilty of that mistake of lying to the feds and he will face his punishment for it.

I think too many here on DU have forgotten that Blago is a Democrat, and he was a great Governor and we here at DU should support a fellow Democrat when he claims he's innocent until he is proven guilty!

[Hardrada]

58. Agreed and Fitz should have after Bush& Cheney & Co, and not this hapless politician.