Friday, April 3, 2009

Blagojevich Indicted

Ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was finally indicted today. Here's the indictment. You may remember that, initially, many thought that this controversy would be inputted upon Obama some how. After a cursory review of the document, I found nothing about which Obama should be concerned. I did, however, find this language interesting:

At times, ROD BLAGOJEVICH attempted to further this goal by conveying messages, directly and with the assistance of others, to individuals whom he believed to be in communication with the President-elect.
This language is extremely guarded and, presumably, carefully worded. I think that parsing language can be misleading; thus, I will not do so here, except to make two points. First, there is no doubt that the prosecutors were cautious in drafting the paragraphs related to Obama, our President. Hence, they carefully crafted the message readers receive when reading about Obama in the indictment. Second, the above-quoted language appears designed to deflect questions as to Obama's involvement (or, as is more likely, lack thereof). After all, saying that Blagojevich wanted to contact "individuals whom he believed to be in communication with" Obama does not represent a close, conspiracy-like relationship.

UPDATE: Politico has more:

Rahm Emanuel appears to have been a victim of one of the extortion attempts with which former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was charged tonight.

Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment refers to two incidents involving "Congressman A": In one, Blagojevich discusses approaching the unnamed congressman to broker a deal for Obama's Senate seat.

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