After a long respite, the defense has returned to the microphone with Sam Adam Sr. cross-examining John Harris.
Adam Sr. is trying to establish a connection between Blagojevich and prominent names in the larger business and political worlds. The defense has tried to make this innocence by association move before.
The expanding pool of dropped names included Bill Clinton and Al Gore, former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the major corporations Microsoft, Allstate and Motorola. None of these proper nouns were directly linked to Blagojevich. Rather, they were brought up in some connection to someone who had at one time worked for Blagojevich.
Adam Sr. began his cross-examination by asking Harris about his time in the military.
“You learned, either there, or around that time, how to speak Russian, didn’t you?” Adam Sr. asked.
“Limited, yes” Harris replied.