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The defense team for deposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich has moved to subpoena President Barack Obama to testify at Blagojevich’s corruption trial.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to charges that accuse him of scheming to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by Obama’s election as president.
The motion filed Thursday says Obama was interviewed for two hours by prosecutors and FBI agents regarding the Blagojevich case, and the defense filed a motion asking for all transcripts, notes and reports from that interview. But the defense never received the documents, the motion said.
The motion also claims that prosecutors say Blagojevich met a labor union official whom he believed to be in contact with President Obama, and told the official he would appoint a certain candidate to the vacant Senate seat. In exchange, Blagojevich expected to be named secretary of Health and Human Services, the motion says prosecutors claim.
But Obama has said he was “confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat,” the motion says.
“President Obama has direct knowledge to allegations made in the indictment. In addition, President Obama’s public statements contradict other witness statements, specifically those made by labor union official and Senate Candidate B,” the motion said.
For full article: http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/blagojevich.obama.subpoena.2.1650066.html
We always knew that the Blago trial would be entertaining!!
Remember Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich trying to get the editorial board replaced at the Chicago Tribune, replaced with people who would give “more favorable” coverage to the Governor?
Well it seems that George Soros wants to use a similar tactic at CNBC, since he doesn’t like the idea that they are pointing the blame for our financial woes more at Washington DC than at Wall Street, and that does not fit the socialistic reform agenda:
Soros Declares War On CNBC
The White House’s Pettiness War.
Liberal media watchdog begins anti-CNBC drive
NEW YORK – Some critics are seizing on comedian Jon Stewart’s attacks of CNBC to launch an online petition drive urging the network to be tougher on Wall Street leaders.
The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America and some economists are behind the effort, launched Monday. They’re asking CNBC to hire economic voices with a track record of being right about the current crisis and do more to hold business leaders accountable.
CNBC has been in the firing line since Stewart pointed out network personalities who, in retrospect, offered bad financial advice.
CNBC had no immediate comment. CNBC spokesman Brian Steel said last week that the network was proud of its record of offering diverse opinions on the economy.
(AP)
From the moment that President Elect Barack Obama announced his appointment of Eric Holder to be Attorney General, there has been a flurry of dissent about the former Clinton appointee, and the controversies that have dogged him since the Clinton administration. As his confirmation hearings begin today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his confirmation may not be off track completely, but the Republicans, and some Democrats, are not going to give Holder an easy ride through the process.
Holder’s involvement in key problems in the Attorney General’s office during the Clinton era include:
- The controversial pardon of fugitive financier Mark Rich, and questionable contributions from Rich’s ex-wife.
- The pardons of the FLNA and some of the Weather Underground (the same group that Bill Ayers was involved with)
- the decision to seize 6-year old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint from his uncle’s Miami home to return him to his father in Cuba
- ties to embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Judicial Watch has actively campaigned against the confirmation of Eric Holder, contacting the Senators, and taking out a full page advertisement to urge the same.
In his opening remarks, Eric Holder used the story of Governor George Wallace’s refusal to permit Holder’s late sister-in-law admittance to college in Alabama during the civil rights movement, and then her actual admission to the University of Alabama. (If we are to rejoice in the election of Obama as a biracial President, is it not time that we cease using past history that will continue to create racial division). As the statements and the questioning has started, Holder has acknowledged some of his Clinton actions as possible mistakes, and he has also defined waterboarding as torture. (The Obama administration needs to tread lightly in that area, because our national security can be undermined with the utterance of a few misguided words).
Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the committee, criticized both Holder and Sen. Leahy in his opening remarks, and basically guaranteed that this process was not going to be an easy one. Quipped one member of the Obama transition team “Hope you brought your dinner!!”
Related stories: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR2009011403112.html?hpid=topnews
Upon arriving in Washignton DC to join his family for the start of the school session and to prepare for the start of their new lives, President-Elect Barack Obama had to issue a statement that he was accepting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s request to withdraw as the Secretary of Commerce designee “with deep regret”.
FOXNews has confirmed that the New Mexico Governor had submitted his request to Obama because he believed that the ongoing Federal Grand Jury investigation into allegations of “pay to play” for some sizable government contracts would be an interference in the Senate confirmation process. Richardson believes that his administration will be exonerated of any wrongdoing, but he does not foresee it being resolved prior to the Inauguration. Some sources have told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the Obama transition team has spent the past week “pushing” Richardson toward today’s announcement.
Gov. Richardson’s problems are not in any way related to those of the embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused, among other things, of attempting to “sell” the Senate seat of Barack Obama. However, they do highlight some of the mechanics of the political system that are at the crux of many of our problems, and thus they highlight why the proper vetting of a Presidential candidate is so imperative. Richardson is the first political casualty of the Obama cabinet, and many sources are saying that the confirmation hearings for Eric Holder as Attorney General will not go as easily as the President-Elect had been assured before naming Holder. The Democrats are on edge in light of the Blagojevich scandal, their Senate loss in Georgia, and the Coleman/Franken debacle, and they are well aware that Holder’s role in controversial Clinton-era actions cannot simply be swept under the rug.
