Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was re-indicted on Thursday, with eight new corruption charges added, including extortion of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel back when he was a congressman along with one of his brothers. Read the indictment here. Read Sun-Times federal court reporter Natasha Korecki’s report here.
From the indictment:
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Solicitation of United States Congressman A
21. In or about 2006, after United States Congressman A inquired about
the status of a $2 million grant for the benefit of a publicly-supported school,
defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH instructed Harris not to release the grant until
further direction from ROD BLAGOJEVICH, even though ROD BLAGOJEVICH
previously had agreed to support the grant and funding for the grant had been
included in the state’s budget.
22. In response to inquiries by a high-ranking state official as to
whether the grant money could be released, defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH
informed the official that ROD BLAGOJEVICH wanted it communicated to
United States Congressman A that United States Congressman A’s brother
needed to have a fundraiser for ROD BLAGOJEVICH.
23. Defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Lobbyist A that ROD
BLAGOJEVICH was giving a $2 million grant to a school in United States
Congressman A’s district and instructed Lobbyist A to approach United States
Congressman A for a fundraiser.
24. After defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH learned from Harris that the
school had started to incur expenses that were to be paid with the grant funds,
ROD BLAGOJEVICH initially resisted the release of the grant money, and then
ultimately agreed to the release of certain of the grant funds to cover incurred
expenses, but only on a delayed basis, even though no fundraiser had been held.