Blagojevich wants Impeachment Panel to Subpoena Emanuel

26 Dec

Posted by MacRanger as Uncategorized

“CHICAGO, Dec. 25 — An attorney for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has asked the legislative panel considering impeachment of the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff.

Ed Genson wants the committee to subpoena Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), longtime Obama friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), said state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie.

Currie, the head of the committee, said she did not yet know what the committee’s response to Genson’s request would be. Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, she added.

Currie noted that the U.S. attorney’s office has already denied the panel’s request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich. U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said earlier this week that lawmakers’ interviews of current or former members of Blagojevich’s staff might jeopardize his criminal investigation.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment Thursday, as did the Obama transition team. Messages seeking comment Thursday from Genson, Jackson, and attorneys for Jarrett and Emanuel were not immediately returned.

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 amid allegations that he tried to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. He has denied any wrongdoing and is ignoring scores of calls to step down, including one from Obama.

None of the possible candidates for Obama’s Senate seat, said to include Jarrett and Jackson, are identified by name in the complaint, but Jackson has said he is the person dubbed “Senate Candidate 5.” The congressman has said federal prosecutors told him he is not a target of their investigation.”

And so it goes. As impeachment is a political process and not a criminal process it doesn’t appear that Blagojevich get’s to “face his accusers, but if his lawyer can jam up the process with enough of these requests he might be able to forestall it until after a trial.

However, if the panel approves subpoenas for Emanuel this would present another hugh problem for team Obama who has virtually washed it’s hands of the matter with that silly eight page “report”.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Rod Blagojevich, Raum Emanuel“

One Response

retire05

December 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
1

Anyone who thinks that Blagojevich is going down without a fight has drank way too much laced egg nog. When it comes to facing the prospect that your Christmas dinners for the next number of years will be served at the convenience of the prison guards, I doubt that Blag will have much loyalty toward “The One”s chief of staff or even “The One” himself. Given the choice of spending years in prison or tarnishing the image of the Golden Idol, which one would you take?

Sorry, I have to agree with some who think there is a “there” there, and that is why the “internal” report was dumped at 3:30 in the afternoon of one of the most slow news days of the year, I have to agree with them. With “The One” giving constant pressers since election day, he is suddenly “unavailable” for comment. After all, addressing the raid on the political whore house that is Illinois politics is not important to the only politician to have ever worked that house of ill repute for years and come out an untarnished virgin.

And let’s make it even more difficult for the press that might have the “audacity” to ask a couple of hard questions by sending Obama in one direct and Rahmbo in another.

I noted the press reported that the Obama “investigation” was reviewed by Fitz’s office, yet Fitz’s office did not provide any information to the Obama legal eagle, that man of honesty, Greg Craig.

This story is not going away no matter how much the MSM tries to bury it in the left hand column of page B-7. And how long can the MSM continue to watch revenue hit rock bottom until one of the NYSlimes reporters deside to really dig.

And let’s not forget: the sentencing phase of the Tony Rezko trial has been, once again, posponed. Is Obama’s polical fairy godmother trying to cut a deal by squeeling like a little piggy?