Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich testified in his retrial on federal corruption charges Thursday, saying he had waited two and a half years for the opportunity.
“I used to be your governor and I’m here today to tell you the truth,” Blagojevich said. Last summer, defense attorneys backed out of their promise to put him on the stand in his first trial, which resulted in a hung jury on all but one count. On Thursday, Blagojevich seized his turn as a witness.
“I’m happy to be here,” he said. “In many ways I feel very liberated.”
In wide-ranging testimony that will continue Friday, Blagojevich denied doing anything illegal and presented a melodramatic, meandering version of his life-story, painting himself as an underdog who succeeded against all odds.
In response to questions from defense attorney Aaron Goldstein, Blagojevich rebutted allegations that he held up a state grant in exchange for campaign contributions.
Prosecutors have accused Blagojevich of threatening to withhold a $2 million state grant for a school in the Congressional district represented at the time by Mayor Rahm Emanuel unless Emanuel persuaded his brother, a Hollywood agent, to host a fundraiser for him.
Blagojevich said he got the idea for a fundraiser in May 2006 after stopping by an event that Ari Emanuel was hosting in his Brentwood, Calif., home for Rahm Emanuel.
Blagojevich said that he was in Los Angeles at the time to raise money for his own re-election campaign for governor from “Indo-American” Bollywood movie stars. He said that he was not surprised the request for the Ari Emanuel fundraiser was denied, and that it was no longer on his mind in August 2006 when he was asked about releasing the grant for the school.
Blagojevich said he ordered his chief of staff at the time, John Harris, to look into the grant request and then to pay it out as invoices came in rather than in a lump sum because he thought a grant might have already been given for another school or the same school in Emanuel’s district.
He said he thought that Bradley Tusk, his deputy governor at the time, might have approved the grant without his knowledge, or that Emanuel might have pressed for a second grant after one had been paid out.
“He’s a successful, crafty political figure who’s fighting for his —” Blagojevich said of Emanuel, before being cut off by an objection from prosecutors.
Blagojevich also described the souring of what he called his once-friendly relationship with U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.. Blagojevich said he had viewed Jackson as a “rising star” who “had the potential to be what Barack Obama became.”
In testimony Wednesday, Jackson accused Blagojevich of shaking him down for a $25,000 campaign donation in 2002 in exchange for appointing Jackson’s wife to run the Illinois Lottery. Blagojevich told jurors he had no recollection of ever discussing the appointment with Jackson.
Blagojevich also spoke about his relationship with Lon Monk, his former chief of staff and confidant who last week provided key testimony for prosecutors.
Monk was a constant in Blagojevich’s life since the two met 30 years ago on a double-decker bus in London, where both were students in a Pepperdine University School of Law study abroad program. Blagojevich said he flew to Washington to consult with Monk before proposing to his wife, Patti, whose father, powerful Ald. Richard Mell (33rd Ward) launched Blagojevich’s political career. And he named Monk as his first chief of staff despite the fact that Monk was a sports agent with no political experience.
Blagojevich described being dazzled by his early encounters with Monk’s well-off family, who had peacocks in the backyard of their southern California home. Blagojevich contrasted Monk’s upbringing with his own in Chicago as the son of a steel-worker, painting himself as a working-class kid who dared to dream big no matter how many obstacles he encountered.
On the stand, Blagojevich recalled working as a shoeshine boy at age 9; delivering pizzas and wearing polyester disco clothes while wealthier Northwestern University students wore Izod; and scoring below the 50th percentile on the law school admissions exam because English is his second language, having grown up speaking Serbian with his father.
He also recounted a summer job doing construction in the basement of a Helene Curtis shop, which had the added benefit of free strawberry and watermelon shampoo — important for a man who described himself as “a product of the disco era, where a hair brush is an extension of your right hand.”
Peppered in among Blagojevich’s testimony were slightly-veiled explanations and excuses for his behavior in office. He said that like his heroes Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill he believes in open, unguarded deliberation, that constant feelings of insecurity and inadequacy can lead one to make bad decisions, and that he may have been susceptible to poor advice.
“Listening to advice is certainly a mixed blessing that I’ve had to learn,” Blagojevich said.
He frequently mentioned his love of history and the founding fathers, blaming his “catastrophic” law school performance on the fact he “couldn’t get my nose out of history books.”
He said that by third grade he could name every president, and drew inspiration from many of them, including the first.
“The thing with George Washington,” Blagojevich said, “Was he never told a lie.”
Idalmy Carrera contributed reporting