CHICAGO -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned some of the convictions that sent former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to prison.
A panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that Blagojevich did not break the law when he sought to secure a job in President Barack Obama's administration in exchange for appointing an Obama adviser to the president's former Senate seat.
The unanimous ruling means the 58-year-old could end up serving less than his original 14-year sentence. He has served more than three years in a Colorado prison so far.
The three-judge panel dismissed five of the 18 counts Blagojevich was convicted of. It offered a ray of hope for the ex-governor by ordering he be resentenced, although it suggested the original sentence wasn't necessarily extreme, even when factoring in the newly tossed convictions.
The ruling addressed a key question in the Blagojevich case: Where is the line between legal and illegal political wheeling and dealing? The panel's answer: When it came to Blagojevich's attempt to land a Cabinet seat, he did not cross the line. His attempts to trade the Senate seat for campaign cash, however, were illegal, the court concluded.
Blagojevich wanted a Cabinet job in exchange for appointing Obama friend Valerie Jarrett to Obama's vacant Senate seat. After Blagojevich's arrest, the seat went to Roland Burris, who served less than two years before a successor was chosen in a special election.
In the ruling, the appeals judges pointed to how President Dwight Eisenhower named Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court after Warren purportedly offered Eisenhower key political support during the 1952 campaign.
"If the [Blagojevich] prosecutor is right, and a swap of political favors involving a job for one of the politicians is a felony, then if the standard account is true both the President of the United States [Eisenhower] and the Chief Justice of the United States should have gone to prison," the ruling says.
Still, the appellate judges upheld allegations that Blagojevich sought to sell the Senate seat. He had argued that he didn't break the law because he never stated explicitly that he was willing to trade an appointment to the seat for campaign cash.
"Few politicians say, on or off the record, 'I will exchange official act X for payment Y,'" the opinion says. "Similarly persons who conspire to rob banks or distribute drugs do not propose or sign contracts in the statutory language. 'Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, you know what I mean' can amount to extortion ... just as it can furnish the gist of a Monty Python sketch."
Prosecutors could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court or could choose to retry Blagojevich on the dropped counts, though prosecutors often decline to retry a case if most of the counts are upheld. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon declined to discuss the ruling, including prosecutors' next moves.
The two-term governor proclaimed his innocence for years on talk shows, on NBC's The Apprentice reality show and while impersonating Elvis at a block party. Taking the stand at his retrial in 2011, a sometimes-tearful Blagojevich said he was a flawed man but no criminal.
Jurors eventually convicted him of 18 counts; 11 dealt with charges that he tried to swap an appointment to the seat for campaign cash or a job.
Blagojevich also was convicted on other pay-to-play schemes. They include the attempted shakedown of the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago for a contribution to Blagojevich's campaign.
The 14-year term was one of the longest for corruption in a state where four of the last seven governors have gone to prison.
After his arrest on Dec. 9, 2008, Blagojevich became the butt of jokes on late-night TV, including for his well-coiffed hair and his foul-mouthed rants on FBI wiretaps. The most notorious excerpt was one where he crows about the Senate seat, "I've got this thing, and it's f * * * * * * golden. And I'm just not giving it up for f * * * * * * nothing."
Blagojevich began serving his sentence at a prison near Denver on March 15, 2012. Before the appeal, the estimated release date for the father of two school-age daughters was 2024; he would be 67.
A Section on 07/22/2015