Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of a false statement account today, and the jury is hung on the other 23 counts. Blagojevich was on trial for 2 counts of racketeering, 11 counts of wire fraud, 4 counts of attempted extortion, 2 counts of bribery, 2 counts of extortion conspiracy, 2 counts of bribery conspiracy and 1 count of false statements.
Blagojevich's trial, which started in June, consisted of recorded statements allegedly trying to sell the Illinois Senate seat. In the phone conversations, Blagojevich makes statements like the Senate seat, "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." Blagojevich says to an adviser, "I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it."
Blagojevich admitted to being financially hurt and was furious when he found out now-President Obama wouldn't give him anything for the Senate seat. The former governor says, "They're not going to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them."
The audio tapes sound like Blagojevich may be conspiring to make a profit from the Senate Seat, as well as threatening to withhold money from Tribune Co., the owners of the Chicago Tribune, who wanted to buy Wrigley Field. Blagojevich wasn't thrilled with the criticism that the Tribune's editorial board had given him.
While it took the jury 14 days of deliberation to finally only agree on one count, other Chicagoans have firm beliefs on all 24 counts.
"Blago is guilty of being a stupid politician but probably not of having committed a provable crime," said Michael Heffernan, a Twitter user @brendanbehanire.
Chicago poet BerTramDeVoul feels Blagojevich isn't the problem. While he does think the verdict should be guilty, he tweets, "Guilty but only if it exposes the system instead of merely blaming a man. Rod isn't/wasn't the problem."
Although Blagojevich didn't get on the stand, he was vocal outside of the courtroom stopping to take photos and his wife, Patti Blagojevich, would pull him away from crowds as he continued to talk to anyone who would listen. Blagojevich also went on popular talk shows like "Lopez Tonight," "The View" and "Good Morning America" to discuss his innocence. If he could've left the country, the former governor also wanted to be on a reality show called "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here" in a "Survivor"-style show, but U.S. District Judge James Zagel refused his request. Patti Blagojevich went in place of him.
Prosecutors said today that they plan to retry the case.
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