{"id":303085,"date":"2010-02-10T15:03:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T20:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=11048"},"modified":"2010-02-10T15:03:35","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T20:03:35","slug":"blago-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/303085","title":{"rendered":"Blago Beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>Wherever impeached\u00a0Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich goes these days, there\u00a0is a usually a media\u00a0frenzy that follows. \u00a0Today was no exception. Blagojevich\u00a0appeared in federal court for the first time in almost a year to enter his plea to\u00a0a new revised federal indictment against him.\u00a0\u00a0 Blagojevich pleaded not guilty specifically telling Judge James Zagel, “I enter a plea of innocent on each and every charge.”\u00a0\u00a0The only other time\u00a0Blagojevich spoke\u00a0during court was\u00a0when the judge asked him if\u00a0he was taking any\u00a0medications, Blagojevich said he was not.<\/p>\n

The new revised indictment, filed more than\u00a0a week ago,\u00a0adds 8 new charges against Blagojevich: racketeering (1) attempted extortion(2) and bribery (2), bribery conspiracy (2) and extortion conspiracy (1).\u00a0 This new superseding indictment is federal prosecutors way of enhancing the corruption charges against Blagojevich.\u00a0 Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama’s US Senate seat to the highest bidder, among other alleged pay to play schemes.<\/p>\n

On his way into the federal building today, Blagojevich, dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, shook a few hands before going through security with his attorneys. He reached out to hug one woman in the lobby after she told the former Governor, “I’m praying for you, praying for you.”<\/p>\n

Before his arraignment started, Blagojevich could be seen chatting up his defense team and joking around with one of his three attorneys.\u00a0 The arraignment lasted less than 10 minutes, afterwards, Blagojevich made a prepared statement to reporters downstairs in what’s known as the\u00a0 “bull pen” area of the lobby, the only place where cameras are allowed in the building.<\/p>\n

Blago’s statement to the media is below. He did not entertain questions but maintains (as he has since he was arrested in December 2008 )he is innocent and has nothing to hide. His trial is scheduled to start June 3rd.<\/p>\n

The following is a statement from Rod Blagojevich following\u00a0his arraignment in federal court\u00a0where he plead\u00a0‘innocent’ to the charges.\u00a0 This statement\u00a0also was made after this lawyers file a\u00a0petition with the court so that all the secretly recorded tapes\u00a0are played.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

“Today I\u2019m throwing down the gauntlet. I know I have a constitutional right to try to suppress these tapes.\u00a0 And as a former prosecutor I believe there’s a good chance that it would\u00a0probably be granted. Here\u2019s what I’m not going to do: I’m not going to hide behind my lawyers, nor will I hide behind technicalities in the law to try to block these tapes from being heard. Instead, I’ve instructed my lawyers to petition the court so that every second, every minute and every hour that the government secretly taped me is provided to both sides to be played in court. And I challenge the government if you’re on the side of truth and justice like you say you are\u00a0and if this is a crime spree like you claim it was, then don\u2019t hide behind technicalities. Play the tapes.\u00a0 Play the truth, and play the whole truth.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m not just talking the talk here. I’m also going to walk the walk, which is right up to the witness stand. And when I take the stand, I’ll testify and swear on the Holy Bible to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I expect and, more importantly, I believe the people of Illinois expect and deserve that the government does the same.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Play the truth, and play the whole truth. Play nothing but the truth. Play the tapes.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wherever impeached\u00a0Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich goes these days, there\u00a0is a usually a media\u00a0frenzy that follows. \u00a0Today was no exception. Blagojevich\u00a0appeared in federal court for the first time in almost a year to enter his plea to\u00a0a new revised federal indictment against him.\u00a0\u00a0 Blagojevich pleaded not guilty specifically telling Judge James Zagel, “I enter a plea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4756,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}