What is Blago charged with: selling a Senate seat or TALKING about selling a Senate seat?

[chimpymustgo]

Put me on record as not defending the guy. But perhaps some lawyers can weigh in here: is there a case, without actual evidence of a crime committed?

:hide:

-snip-

According to the affidavit, in more than a month of recorded phone calls at his home and campaign office, Mr. Blagojevich considered numerous ways that he might personally and politically gain from the various Senate candidates, none of whom were identified by name in the court filing. One possible choice might be able to help him secure a post with the new administration as secretary of health and human services or energy; a “three way” deal involving a union and a candidate might win him a union leadership post; or perhaps, he could secure the high-paying helm of a nonprofit organization that could be created for him.

-snip-

The governor is accused of racing to solicit millions of dollars in donations from people with state business before an ethics law bars such behavior in January, and threatening to rescind state money this fall from businesses, including a Chicago hospital for children, whose executives refused to give him money. He is also accused of putting pressure on The Chicago Tribune to fire members of its editorial board who had criticized him or lose the governor’s help on the possible sale of Wrigley Field, which is owned by the Tribune Company and is home to the Chicago Cubs.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/10Illinois.html?em

[PassingFair]

1. The threats to the newspaper seems actionable...

his bloviating about the senate seat....just embarrassing.



I agree with you.

[islandmkl]

2. are some the charges 'conspiracy'-based charges?

talking about committing a crime is generally a felony in most states (if not all) and federally, even if the crime being 'talked about' is a misdemeanor...

[mucifer]

3. well he did tell the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital that he had to

contribute to his election fun if he wanted millions of state dollars to go to the hospital. That sounds VERY actionable to me. But, I'm not a lawyer.

[Saturday]

7. But even then, no money exchanged hands. nt

[mucifer]

It can't be legal to ask for money to your campaign to allocate money to a children's hospital

[marshall]

15. He also tried to pull the children's hospital funding

After the hospital did not fork over the cash to his campaign he started the process of pulling their funding. Another reason the feds acted now.

[mucifer]

16. I used to work as a nurse for Children's Memorial Their CEO was like Mr. Rogers.

Seriously. Some fucked up shit going on with blago.

[elleng]

4. Read all about it:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/a-readers-guide-to-the-blagojevich-complaint/?hp

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. Solicitation of a bribe is illegal

I'm pretty certain of that.

[NNN0LHI]

12. I think just discussing doing it would warrant a conspiracy charge?

Even if the actual crime never occurs.

Don

[BeFree]

6. Hey!

See, this is why I suggested that we tap all government officials' official phones. What fun we'd have day in and day out. I mean, if the government can tap my f'n phone, why can't we tap their (actually our) phones?

And then of course, what Blago did was nothing Bushco wouldn't do, so you have to ask, why is the press hammering the little guy while they let big guy (bush) slide? And isn't that one reason I won't buy anything the press dishes out?

[cali]

11. um, being governor of a state is NOT being a "little guy"

and was the press also being unfair when they hammered Stevens? How about Ney? And Cunningham? And Abramoff? ]

[sohndrsmith]

8. Not sure if this answers your question directly, but FItzgerald does clarify complaint:

Excerpt: from the transcripts of the Justice Department Briefing, New York Times, 9 November 2008:
Note: I highly recommend reading the full transcript - all 12 or 13 pages of it - it's informative and can answer some questions.

MR. FITZGERALD: "Well, you hit on two questions. One is a legal distinction. There is scheming or conspiracy to commit a crime and then there's a substantive crime. We've charged conspiracy or scheming in this complaint.

"One of the things we want to do with this investigation is to track out the different schemes and conspiracies to find out which ones were carried out or not and who might be involved in that or not. And that's something we haven't done yet. Now that we've gone overt we'll be interviewing people and figuring that out.

"But it is a crime in and of itself for people to scheme to violate the law. That's called conspiracy. Then there's a substantive crime.

"As far as how much -- whether or not there people acting like a tough guy or not, I don't want to pre-try the case, but if you lean on someone and leave them to believe their bill is not getting signed unless they give you the money, that is what acting like a tough guy is, it's a crime."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/09text-illinois.html?pagewanted=1&sq=ROD%20BLAGOJEVICH&st=nyt&scp=1

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. he could have treated the Libby thing that way too

there was an enormous conspiracy in the Bush admin. to.......

[chimpymustgo]

18. Agree with you both - but Bambino, you are making a critical point. I continue to believe Fitz

dropped the ball on Bush, Cheney and Rove. The question is "why".

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. I wonder how it will be once they are out of office

[hlthe2b]

14. there it is ...... n/t

[sam sarrha]

9. people in very high places call him a Sociopath and Totally Insane

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. sounds a bit like the former Gov. Ehrlich

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. The charges:

Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, are each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.

They conspired to commit the illegal acts, selling Sen. seat being one of them.

Same charges feds used to take down Dickie Scrugss, the Mississippi lawyer,
who had made a huge name for himself suing Phillip Morris, and who contributed heavily to Dems. Scruggs was charged with " intent to bribe a judge."

[goodhue]

19. conspiring to sell

Doesn't actually sell to commit the crime, talk and overt acts will suffice . . .

[OffWithTheirHeads]

20. To put it simply, Attempting to sell a Senate seat

It's just like attempted robbery. If you try to rob me but I pull out a gun, thus foiling your attempt, no money has exchanged hands but you still are guilty of a crime. I don't understand why that's such a difficult concept to grasp.

[jacksonian]

21. because there's no "trying to rob but gun is pulled"

only talk about possibly robbing, no gun needed by anyone yet. Legal problem as it applies to the written law admittedly, but i think you can see the difference in moral culpability.