The verdict is finally in on ex-Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich.
Guilty of just one count of making false statements to the FBI..one count out of twenty four!
Maximum sentence would be five years.
Blagojevich declared his innocence today, hitting back at the federal prosecutors.
"The government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me, and on every charge but one, they could not prove that I broke any laws except one, a nebulous charge from five years ago," he told the press mosh pit at the Dirksen Federal Building this afternoon. "I did not lie to the FBI. I told the truth from the very beginning."
"We have a prosecutor who has wasted and wanted to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to take me away from my family and my home," he continued.
The skinny is that there was one juror who pretty much deadlocked the entire jury 11-1...which leads me to wonder if a deal was made between Blago and the White House to take it easy on him provided he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't let his lawyer ask certain witnesses any inconvenient questions. Even if he's sentenced to the maximum, Obama would likely pardon him the same way Clinton pardoned Susan McDougal and Webb Hubbel for keeping their mouths shut about Whitewater.
A couple of years in a country club federal pen like Allenwood ,maybe with some cash waiting for him after he's sprung...not unheard of in a place like Chicago.
In a strange way, this is actually justice. As Blago once said, if he's guilty, so is Barack Husein Obama.
Update: Ace reveals that the holdout, Juror # 106, a black female believed to be in her 60s, is a retired state public health director who has ties to the Chicago Urban League (yeah, community organizers) and has some political connections with the Chicago Democrat machine.
And her husband is a union lawyer.
Like I said, it's Chicago.
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