A hung jury on 23 of the 24 counts, and a conviction on lying to an FBI agent:
The jury is finally in on Rod Blagojevich — and the verdict is decidedly undecided.
A federal jury of six men and six women just returned a split verdict against the former governor, convicting him on only one of the 24 criminal corruption counts he faced.
Verdict reached: Blagojevich brothers arrive in court The Blago blog: Latest updates Complete coverage of the Blagojevich trial
The governor was found guilty of giving a false statement to federal agents.
In a courthouse where prosecutors win more than 90 percent of the time and after listening to a treasure trove of secretly recorded conversations, the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on the other 23 counts.
So, the lesson here is that maybe US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is not all that, which I kind of figured when all he got out of Plamegate was Scooter Libby lying to federal officers (funny similarity there).
Actually, there is a broader lesson: Don’t talk to law enforcement if you think that there is the vaguest possibility that you are a target, even minor misstatements get thrown into the mix.
FWIW, I don;t think that Rahm will testify at the inevitable retrial, there is simply no “there” there.
I still cannot figure out how the prosecution screwed the pooch this badly, but I haven’t followed the minutiae, and most of what I have heard have been prosecution statements, so I won’t 2ndguess the jury.
Given that it appears to have been 11 to 1 to convict, I am not sure the pooch was screwed.
Perhaps just air kissed.
I just read a report that it was 11:1 on just one or 2 of the charges.
I think that throwing the kitchen sink failed, because the kitchen sink strategy depends on the "theft of honest services" charge, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional recently.
Basically. the kitchen sink implies that the guy is not working for the voters/shareholders very strongly.