Rod Blagojevich found guilty of trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat

Former Illinois governor, who was forced out in 2009, found guilty on 17 corruption charges by Chicago jury Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, has been found guilty in Chicago of 17 of 20 corruption charges against him – including trying to sell or swap Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Jurors delivered their verdicts on Monday after deliberating for nine days. They jury found Blagojevich guilty on all 11 charges related to the Senate seat, but found him not guilty of soliciting bribes in the alleged shakedown of a road-building executive. The panel was deadlocked on a charge of attempted extortion on that same case. Judge James Zagel has ruled that Blagojevich will be barred from travelling outside the northern district of Illinois without permission from the judge. A status hearing for sentencing has been set for 1 August. Blagojevich testified for seven days and denied all wrongdoing. Prosecutors said he lied, and that the proof was evident on FBI wiretaps. Those included a widely parodied clip in which Blagojevich calls the Senate opportunity “fucking golden.” In his first trial last August, Blagojevich was convicted of one count of lying to federal officials, but jurors were unable to reach a decision on the other counts. Rod Blagojevich Democrats Illinois US politics United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.