Scandal-ridden Governor Rod Blagojevich has hired attorneys and may resign as early as Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He’s currently busy fighting off calls for resignation from his own party, impeachment attempts in the Illinois legislature, and a move by the Illinois Attorney General that would remove him from office.
Gov. Blagojevich will decide early next week — perhaps as early as Monday — whether he should resign, a source close to the governor told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“He was blindsided by this,” the source said. “He needs some time to digest what’s going on. He’s going to make his position clear shortly.”
He was blindsided by being arrested for attempting to sell the job of one of the most famous people in the world right now, the President-elect of the United States? Is he that used to getting away with this corruption?
Also Friday, Blagojevich retained the lawyer who defended R&B singer R. Kelly and disgraced media mogul Conrad Black to represent him in his criminal case.
Ed Genson, one of Chicago’s top criminal-defense attorneys, said he was assembling a team of lawyers to assist with the case. Genson typically doesn’t represent clients who plan to plead guilty.
Ed Morrissey points out that Genson is 50/50 there. Kelly miraculously got an acquittal despite video evidence, while Black ended up with a 78-month prison sentence and millions in fines. Four of the last 8 Illinois governors have gone to prison and there appears to be hundreds of hours of evidence to convict Blagojevich. I’m thinking the disgraced governor will end up more Conrad Black than R. Kelly.
by Stephan Tawney on Sat, Dec 13, 2008