A Dog and Pony show is about begin in a Chicago courtroom

Made a post here about Christopher Kelly, who in my opinion is a witness with the "family jewels," concerning the many mysteries surrounding former governor Rod Blagojevich. However, he took his own life, and we will never know about his relationship with Blagojevich as his head fundraiser in its entirety?

Now, I looked at my post, had it up for awhile, and with all the information included; I thought it would derail from this thread. The material will be in a thread of its own. Kelly's story is quite fascinating, and definitely a human tragedy. His name has been mentioned quite extensively at trial. Here is the thread I started exclusively for Christopher Kelly. I believe this angle of the trial is one heck of a conspiracy.

Political business in the State of Illinois carries a High Price




[edit on 13-6-2010 by Jakes51]

The Blagojevich trial is moving along at full steam, and it is as interesting as I thought it would be. Former confidants have taken the stand and singing like choir boys to save themselves, one has taken their silence to the grave, US Senators and members of Congress may appear, and high profile White House aides and a President may be called into question about their former Senate seat being put on the auction block. Most importantly, the juicy wiretaps have been revealed and made public at trial. To me, that is what I have been waiting to hear about with the enthusiasm of child before Christmas.

Here is some of it, and my goodness does the media maven, former governor, Rod Blagojevich, love cash. In the video below, it is a clip taken from a wire tap conversation between the former governor and his brother Rob. It is talk of rallying the horses for campaign cash and reaching a goal of 4-million-dollars before the Illinois ethics legislation became effective on January 2009. The legislation would have severely hindered the former governor's access and use of campaign funds.

Ex-aide: Blagojevich made deal with Jones on ethics veto

Alonzo Monk testified that Blagojevich was worried the legislation would hurt his ability to raise money because it banned people with state contracts of $50,000 or more from donating to the campaigns of politicians who administered them.

The news clip below highlights Blagojevich's lust for cash and was played during the Lon Monk testimony.



There is more audio recordings available to mull over and satisfy our taste for intrigue regarding this trial. The link below has audio available to listen to at the top of the page. It is reported that there are hundreds of hours of wiretapped conversation in existence, and available to the prosecution.

Wiretap tapes key as Blagojevich goes on trial

Federal prosecutors have 500 hours of secretly made FBI wiretap tapes . . .

As it stands now, witnesses have been called: former friends, aides, and colleagues, and most in legal perils of their own to contend with. Practically all have been charged and convicted in other crimes, and have been cooperating to lessen their own punishment.

Still, the tapes are the most captivating for me, because it gives a window into what the former governor was up to before meeting his fate. Was he personally shaking down businesses or campaign contributors, selling a Senate seat, or accepting unsolicited cash? That remains to be seen, but the trial is an interesting look into the shadowy pay-to-play environment of Illinois politics.

As it stands now, it seems if Blagojevich is guilty of anything, it is nothing more than having bad company in his entourage and having bad manners on the telephone. It seems there are a bunch of convicted crooks taking the stand and doing everything and anything asked of them by the government to take time off of their incarceration?

In other words, it seems there is no direct links to Blagojevich and the scams orchestrated by his followers and allegedly on his behalf? The accusations made in the testimony is quite serious and seems nefarious, but as far as I am concerned, the testimony should be taken with skepticism. The men making the testimony have lengthy jail sentences hanging over their heads. Their candor and earnestness comes into question for me? The trial is still young, and more updates to follow.