Dreams of hitting up donors for Blagojevich, dreams of hitting the White House for FitzgeraldA newly released internal Blagojevich campaign document shows that the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago bypassed actual donors to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in Dec. 8, 2008, subpoenas of Blagojevich records, demanding instead records on incoming Obama White House personnel.
One day before FBI agents were sent to arrest Blagojevich at his home, U. S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald’s office demanded “any and all documents, including notes, calendars, lists, correspondence, communications, logs, records, or other data, relating in any way to any of the following individuals and/or entities,” naming 32 individuals and groups, beginning with Blagojevich family members and campaign insiders...
Some anomalies in the Blagojevich arrest have already been reported. Of the two counts charged, one is based on investigations from 2002-2004, raising the question why Blagojevich was not indicted back then. As attorneys have pointed out, anything Blagojevich did back then, that is indictable now, was indictable then. What was Blagojevich being saved for?
The ongoing FitzBlago saga is in some ways irresistibly funny. But an America already dismayed by blanket surveillances, sweeping application of the USAPATRIOT Act, indefinite detention, holding prisoners without charges, illegal ‘rendition’ flights, and torture should also be concerned about a comic-opera arrest. This is not news to cheer. Notwithstanding the unpopularity of the ex-governor of Illinois, the cold hard fact remains that he was arrested unnecessarily -- at his home -- on Dec. 9, 2008, by a Bush appointee who got his start under Rudy Giuliani, famed for such acts. The groundbreaking election of Barack Obama to the White House should have impeded self-aggrandizing actions by Bush holdovers. Instead -- in Chicago -- they speeded up.
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