Following the testimony of two former aides and the current president of SEIU’s Illinois Council, Rod Blagojevich is banking on the tapes to set him free.
“For the past six days the government has played tapes that they’ve chosen to play,” Blagojevich told the gathered media in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building Tuesday afternoon. “And as I’ve said all along, for the past year and a half, those tapes show that I have not committed any crimes.”
“When my lawyers attempted to play a tape that will begin the process of actually exonerating me,” Blagojevich continued, “the government objected to them playing the tapes.”
Blagojevich was referring to his defense team’s effort earlier in the day to introduce a tape from Dec. 2008, in which he tells his former Chief of Staff John Harris to call Rahm Emanuel and tell him that the governor was still mulling the possibility of appointing Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
The tape is part of the defense’s attempt to prove that Blagojevich was using the Senate appointment not to wrangle campaign contributions but to force Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan to pass Blagojevich’s agenda. Blagojevich, according to this thinking, could use the possibility of appointing Attorney General Lisa Madigan as leverage with her father the speaker.
In his brief exchange with reporters Tuesday, Blagojevich praised Judge James Zagel for saying that the tapes would be admissible when it was the defense’s turn to call witnesses. Although hardly a victory, Blagojevich presented it as such.
“But thank goodness the judge saved me,” Blagojevich said, “and stepped in and made it clear that when I testify – which I will, and I can’t wait to testify to set the record straight and clarify some of these conversations and tell the people of Illinois what exactly was on my mind and what I was trying to do and what I ultimately attempted to do – then I know when I testify as the judge has said he’ll allow those tapes to be played.
“Again, I want to acknowledge the sense of relief I have the judge saved me by doing what he did today.”
Earlier in the day, following defense lawyer Sheldon Sorosky’s cross-examination of the SEIU’s Tom Balanoff, former Blagojevich advisor and lobbyist Doug Scofield took the stand.
Scofield said he left his post as a senior aide to Blagojevich in 2003 for personal reasons – young kids, bad hours – as well as his discomfort with the level of involvement Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly had in the administration. (At one point, Scofield testified, he voiced this concern to Lon Monk, who he says comforted him by saying, “We’ll get through this.”)
Scofield said Blagojevich was jealous that he was overshadowed by the success of Obama, his fellow Chicagoan. On Nov. 4, 2008, Balanoff called Scofield and asked if he could set up a meeting between Blagojevich, then-SEIU President Andy Stern and himself.
According to Scofield’s testimony, Balanoff and Stern told Blagojevich that the SEIU’s preferred candidates for the Senate seat were then-Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, Valerie Jarrett and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Jesse Jackson Jr. was again mentioned as an undesirable candidate. After the meeting, Scofield testified that Blagojevich asked him about his chances of being appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration.
Scofield said Blagojevich also wanted know if he thought President Obama was likely to name a new U.S. Attorney in Chicago to replace Patrick Fitzgerald.