After the first break of the morning in the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial, prosecutor Chris Niewoehner is back at it, now tearing into Robert Blagojevich.
“Robert Blagojevich got on this stand, and he lied to you,” the prosecutor tells the jury. Niewoehner argues that the reason why Robert Blagojevich claimed in his testimony last week that he was unaware of his brother’s schemes involving trading the U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash from supporters of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., because “he could not admit that he knew what his brother was talking about was fundraising,” Niewoehner says. “Because then you would know he knew exactly what his brother wanted to do.”
Niewoehner evokes a Nov. 14, 2008 phone conversation between Rod and Robert Blagojevich, after Indian businessman and Jackson fundraiser Raghuveer Nayak sends over two faxes to the campaign, showing the Indian community’s support for the ex-governor.
“This is the guy who talks about tit-for-tat and horse-trading,” Niewoehner says of Robert Blagojevich, noting that on the stand the co-defendant was “dancing and dodging.”
“He couldn’t get a straight English sentence out of his mouth when he was talking about it,” says Niewoehner.
The government casts scrutiny on the brothers’ decision to cancel a meeting with Nayak after the Chicago Tribune reports that lobbyist and former Blagojevich confidant John Wyma was cooperating with the Feds.