Oh sweet justice.
"Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor.
...
Then-President-elect Obama, Emanuel and Jarrett sat down with the FBI about a year ago -- just after Blagojevich was arrested on charges of trying to sell Obama's recently vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder."
It's been reported that Blago was enraged that he was the only one taking the fall for the corruption surrounding Obama's Senate seat. But will Emanuel be implicated in the scheme? Here's what we know so far.
- Emanuel's relationship with Blagojevich goes back to 2002 when the two formed a political tag team. Blago helped Emanuel win his vacated House seat while Emanuel was one of Blago's top advisors for his gubernatorial campaign (along with Barack Obama). As Emanuel put it, he and Obama "participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two." (Emanuel later claim he misspoke. Uh huh.)
- In his book The Governor, Blagojevich revealed that, at Rahm's request, he rammed a bill through the state legislature that legalized Mixed Martial Arts in Illinois. This meant that Ultimate Fighting, a popular fight show, could come to Chicago. Rahm's brother Ari, a notorious Hollywood agent, was representing UFC at the time.
- Emanuel was knee-deep in the negotiations over the Senate seat replacement, having delivered Blagojevich a list of acceptable candidates. He is reportedly on the tapes the FBI recorded of Blago's phone calls.
After a long history of wheeling and dealing with Blagojevich, Emanuel refused to defend the governor after he was indicted. Perhaps Blago is about to carry out a spectacular revenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment