Two-and-a-half years after Rod Blagojevich’s arrest on federal corruption charges, government prosecutors late Thursday seized their first opportunity to question the former governor before a jury.
“Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar asked.
“I was, yes,” Blagojevich answered. After confirming that Blagojevich was convicted of lying to federal agents, Schar said: “Then it’s fair to say sir, is it not, that within hours of being convicted of lying to the FBI, you were back lying again weren’t you?”
The pointed exchange marked a clear departure from Blagojevich’s first five days on the stand, during which he rambled through friendly questioning from his defense team at a leisurely pace that earned a rebuke from Judge James Zagel. From the start of Thursday’s cross-examination, the prosecution sought to paint Blagojevich as liar who deceived the public in several instances prior to his arrest in December of 2008.
Early questions focused on Blagojevich’s statement at a November 2008 press conference that he was not personally interested in taking the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
Schar noted that Blagojevich had testified that his reason for holding the press conference was to be “transparent” with the public about the Senate appointment process, yet Blagojevich never revealed many of the ideas he was considering, including naming himself to the seat.
In a contentious exchange, Blagojevich said he did not remember everything he’d said at the press conference and that he was playing politics.
“It’s the quarterback faking the handoff and throwing long. It’s part of the business,” Blagojevich said.
“That was a lie,” Schar said of Blagojevich’s assertion at the press conference that he did not want the Senate seat for himself.
“It was a political answer. I can’t say it was completely false. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Blagojevich answered.
Earlier Thursday, before prosecutors began the cross-examination that is expected to last for days, Blagojevich repeatedly described his own interest in the Senate seat. He said he considered the Senate a possible place to “parachute in” if he was impeached or otherwise under fire as governor.
Blagojevich also confirmed one of the more far-fetched ideas he floated while considering ways to exit the governor’s office: That he should seek a presidential appointment to travel to Afghanistan to track down Osama bin Laden.
It appeared the testimony about the hunt for Bin Laden was intended to help defense lawyers make a point that many of Blagojevich’s Senate scenarios were speculative brainstorms and not carefully thought out plans.
Under cross examination, Blagojevich also admitted planting a story with Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed inaccurately suggesting he had recently talked to U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) about the Senate seat.
Blagojevich had spent much of the day explaining that he had wanted to use the threat of appointing Jackson –- or himself or then-Illinois Senate president Emil Jones — to the Senate as a way to pressure Democrats in Washington to help him broker a deal with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Blagojevich said he knew Obama and other high-profile Democrats wanted a Senate appointee who could easily be re-elected, and they did not think Jackson, Blagojevich or Jones fit the bill. Blagojevich repeatedly described his plan to appoint Madigan’s daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to the Senate in exchange for Michael Madigan’s support for his legislative agenda.
Because Blagojevich did not trust Michael Madigan to make good on such an arrangement, he said, he wanted other Democrats to “act as the United Nations” and intervene with Madigan before and after any potential deal for the appointment.
“They might think I’m crazy enough to actually do Jesse Jr., or me, or Emil Jones if they didn’t help me with this Madigan deal,” Blagojevich said.
Blagojevich said he was only considering appointing Lisa Madigan if he could lock in a deal with her father. “Absent the deal, she goes from first to last” on his list of potential appointees, he said.
“How much do I love the people of Illinois, am I man enough to make a decision like that?” Blagojevich said he asked himself.
Prosecutors have not alleged anything illegal related to a deal with Madigan. They have alleged Blagojevich tried to use the Senate seat to obtain cash or job offers, including by pressuring then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to get wealthy donors to fund a health care non-profit organization that Blagojevich would head, in exchange for appointing Obama ally Valerie Jarrett to the Senate seat.
Blagojevich said he hoped wealthy businessmen including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and George Soros would donate up to $20 million to the non-profit organization, which would advocate for health care nationwide. But responding to questions from defense attorney Aaron Goldstein, Blagojevich said he did not plan to appoint Jarrett to the Senate seat in exchange for help with the non-profit organization.
“Any decision I would ultimately make on the Senate seat had to be legal, obviously,” he said.
Blagojevich said he envisioned a press conference where he, Obama and Jarrett would announce Jarrett’s Senate appointment, the formation of the non-profit and Blagojevich’s new role as a national health care advocate. He said the new organization would be “counter to the Tea Party” and would “make history and push health care across America.” He added: “The money would be used to advocate for health care, not to pay me.”
Blagojevich referred to Obama as a “king,” and described scheming among his courtiers as the motivation for Emanuel’s push for Jarrett.
“Apparently it was Rahm Emanuel who was pushing her and not necessarily President Obama, because of the politics of the king,” Blagojevich testified.
“Who’s closer to the king has more influence,” Blagojevich added. “Rahm wanted Valerie Jarrett out of the way so he’d have more influence with the president.”
Blagojevich said he did not see Jarrett as the best candidate for Illinois because he said she would be focused on backing Obama’s national agenda rather than Illinois-specific issues. He asked advisers to seek an African American “war hero” similar to disabled veteran Tammy Duckworth, a former Democratic congressional candidate. One candidate was identified, but that plan went nowhere.
Blagojevich also described his personal goal of securing “upward mobility” as he entered his “wilderness years post-governor.” He said he wanted to maintain a presence in politics and leave the door open to a national comeback “as unlikely as the punditocracy would have said it was.”