Legal News

Breaking News: Blagojevich Gone But Not Soon Forgotten

By Jennifer Forsyth

After a jury convicted former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on corruption charges, Stevens made a curious argument. He claimed that because the judge had yet to rule on his motion to set aside his conviction, he had yet to be formally convicted.

So it would be interesting to know if the former Alaska senator could come up with a legal theory as to why Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich hasn’t just been kicked out of office. Regardless, as far as the Illinois Senate is concerned, he’s gone forthwith. Here’s the WSJ story.

After thumbing his nose at the impeachment process, preferring the company of Diane Sawyer among others, Blagojevich made a last minute attempt to save his job. (Some argue that Blagojevich had a chance to fare well at his impeachment trial, had he only played along.) Speaking before the Senate for a little less than an hour, he repeatedly said he “never intended” to break any laws and insisted, “If I felt I did something wrong, I would have resigned in December.”

In his closing statement, Blagojevich asked senators how they could vote him out of office based on criminal charges that haven’t been proven. “There hasn’t been a single piece of evidence that proves any wrongdoing,” he said. “How can you throw a governor out of office with incomplete and insufficient evidence?”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).