US District Court Judge James B. Zagel on Wednesday unsealed documents filed in the case against former Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich (D). The 91-page document lays out in greater detail the evidence in the prosecution’s corruption case against a man charged with using his office to line his own pockets. One of the central money-making schemes alleged is a multi-billion deal to install High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes inside an existing toll road. Blagojevich announced the program in 2008.
“There were occasions after Blagojevich became Governor that Blagojevich, (Christopher) Kelly, (Alonzo) Monk, and (Tony) Rezko all met to discuss their efforts to make money from state action,” Assistant US Attorney Christopher S. Niewoehner wrote in the court filing. “As Rezko talked, he indicated how much money Blagojevich, Kelly, Rezko, and Monk could hope to make from the different ideas. The amounts that were associated with the different ideas were typically in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per deal, which would be evenly split four ways.”
According to the document, Blagojevich’s Chief of Staff Alonzo Monk was charged with raising funds for the Friends of Blagojevich campaign account by squeezing toll road builders and engineering firms. Specifically, Monk was to demand $500,000 from a cement company executive in return for approval of a $1.8 billion tollway expansion project. Blagojevich would approve a $5 billion plan if the next year if he was satisfied with the kickbacks, according to prosecutors.
“I’ve got Lon going to [Construction Executive] and asking for $500,000,” Blagojevich said in a wiretapped conversation on October 6, 2008, according to court filings. “I could have made a larger announcement but wanted to see how they perform by the end of the year. If they don’t step up, [expletive] ’em. I won’t do the bigger announcement in January.”
Blagojevich had the authority to approve both projects without seeking the approval of the state legislature. He came up with the idea of calling the toll road within a toll road concept “Green Lanes” to entice the support of environmentalists. He also sought to raise additional revenue by ensuring automated cameras would be used to mail tickets on the new lanes.
The man identified only as “Construction Executive” was a major Blagojevich fundraiser, but he balked at raising the large sums for the tolling project. The executive told his contacts in the governor’s office that he was working on the donations when, according to prosecutors, he had no intention of coming through with the cash. Prosecutors intend to use the taped conversations regarding the toll road plan as evidence of a wider “Pay to Play” conspiracy designed to use the contracting power of the state government to generate campaign donations and other lucrative offers.
Blagojevich claims he is innocent. His trial is scheduled to begin in June. A copy of the court filing is available in a 240k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: 
Evidentiary Proffer for US v. Blagojevich (US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 4/16/2010)
[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]
The voters of my fair state are running a competition to see if we can break the record for most consecutive governors in Federal prison.
What state holds the record now? LA is always a safe guess, but they don’t seem to get too excised by this type of thing. In RI we had one governor and one mayor jammed up within several years of one another; both with public works-related corruption. Politicians aren’t terribly creative when it comes to bribery/extortion, it seems.
chuckR,
That was of course snark, but we have a great track record. Otto Kerner was convicted in the 1970s, Daniel Walker was convicted in the 1980s, and George Ryan was convicted in the 2000s. Blago will probably be convicted in the 2010s.
We let ourselves down in the 1990s. Or perhaps just got away with it.
“We let ourselves down in the 1990s. Or perhaps just got away with it.”
Big Jim Thompson probably should have been convicted, but he’s very well connected politically and hasn’t made enough mortal enemies to be at much risk.
What state holds the record now? I would figure Jersey.
John
Of course he’s innocent…..
Dirtbags like this (and his lovely foul-mouthed wife) deserve everything that is coming to them. Isn’t this POS on some kind of reality show? Glad I don’t own a TV.
He was on the latest edition of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.
He got booted two weeks ago, because, as a team leader for that particular project, he didn’t know how to use e-mail and texting to communicate with his team in another location!
If he ate a nail, he’d s*** a screw.
The 1991 Louisiana governor’s race was between Edwin Edwards, a former governor convicted of corruption, and David Duke, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. Two bumper stickers (not produced by the Edwards campaign) read, “Vote for the crook. It’s important.” and “Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard.” Edwards won.
I have lived in Chicago and had to use the toll roads both heading north to WI and all over the metro area for work. I know the man is guilty, and I always hated the shameless self promotion of putting his name on EVERYTHING state wide. Still, the open road tolling is an amazing feature on our toll roads, and just using the two tolls heading from the city to the WI state border saves 30 minutes of travel during peak weekend traffic.
Blagojevich didn’t invent this. It would have happened without him. And, if it did, it wouldn’t have included millions in corruption, bribery and extortion. It wouldn’t have been paid for with money not yet collected from our yet non-working, or not-yet-born children and grandchildren. The 30 minutes you save, “during peak traffic time”, wasn’t worth the billions wasted for years to come.
With the right government, we can accomplish a great deal and under budget. With the kind of government Illinois has had, nothing can be accomplished without a tremendous of your money.
I hope the guys asking for more safety regulation on the GX pages today are taking a good look here on this page at who’s be doing the regulating and how it would work. Honestly, I am shocked that the Federal case is even being pursued. Isn’t this (the above sleaze) the main function of government? The public interest is certainly peripheral at best.
I like how where I live we don’t have tolls on our interstate highways. Maybe Illinois could look into that.
Tony Rezko, buddy to our current president? Say it ain’t so!!!
As someone who was born at Cook County (long ago), I just wonder where the corruption-free government is?
In San Francisco or Sacramento, you pay a “political consultant” a large amount of money and magically, things happen. In Chicago or Springfield, it’s a more straightforward transaction.
I’m trying to think of the government anywhere in the US free of scandal.
Is the toll-booth thing wrong? Sure. Should someone be punished? Sure. Does government corruption happen? Anywhere and anytime you have a government. Just human nature.
When those neato signs with the Governor’s name first went up, they cost about $15,000 EACH, and there was only one firm (surprise!) in the state supposedly capable of making them.
After Blagojevich was impeached, his name was hastily covered over with signs designating the particular toll plaza name and ID. The speed with which the normally somnolent tollway authority moved on this was enough to make one’s head spin.
The whole affair smacked of a cult of personality, like North Korea’s Glorious Leader thing.
And to think we voted someone like this into the Whitehouse…
Political corruption has been a special interest for me ever since I worked for a reform mayor who was so squeaky clean she wouldn’t even give a friend a business card because it might wound up being used to imply her endorsement of a job applicant.
When corruption is widespread people take it for granted. A major sting operation in the 80’s nabbed hundreds of current and former county commissioners. The commissioners had wide discretionary authority over purchasing and road maintenance, and that enabled the crooked ones (was there any other kind?) to become rent-seekers. Over time it got seen as a perquisite of office. For example, a commissioner for Pottawatomie County made weekly visits to a lumber yard to pick up his “commission.” (Almost uniformly across the state commissioners demanded a 10% kickback.) When the commissioner came into the store, he was greeted jovially by the manager, who immediately set to going over the past week’s invoices to figure the kickback. Then the manager would open the cash register, pull out the sum, and hand it to the commissioner. All this took place in open view of everyone in the store.
Iowa has a reputation for clean politics. When Oklahoma was thinking about installing a central computer database for all state jobs, a potential bidder brought down a guy from Iowa to talk about how well the system worked for them. Their central personnel agency had up-to-date information on the status of every state position: whether it was vacant or filled, who was in it, the salary, etc. Oklahoma agency heads were cool to the idea. I asked the Iowan how often he was asked by legislators about a position’s status. He replied he didn’t recall anyone ever asking. Jaws dropped all around the room. The idea that a state senator wouldn’t want to control every job in his district was incomprehensible to the Sooners.
By and large, political scientists give insufficient attention to the corruption’s role public policy decisions. I think it’s because they tend to be in love with government. It’s hard to see the warts on one’s sweetheart.
Ha (well not really), I remember when this was announced. After just having tons of construction on toll roads that were supposed to go free after construction was paid for decades ago finished, they announced this HOV idea…..ya know, to save the earth….despite proof from all over the country these lanes cause more accidents and don’t save fuel.
The idea was that you’d have HOV lanes, and SURPRISE SURPRISE, you would/could pay to use them….the more congestion, the more you pay….and you could even pay if you were the only one in the car, all you have to do is pay more money.
All over Chicago, instantly people smelled the dirt in this idea. From day 1, we all knew it was filthy. Now we have the proof.
I wanna see Blago in prison, all his cronies in prison, and the current “leaders” so scared s**tless that they knock off these activities. Blago and Rezko are just the tip, so many more filthy politicians in Illinois and Chicago politics it isn’t even funny.
Love my adopted hometown, it truly is one of the greatest cities in the world, but this kinda stuff, spending like there is no tomorrow, and whoring yourself out or taxing people to no end to fill budget gaps is KILLING this place. Hopefully throwing people in jail will help solve some of this. On the flip side, you’ll still get a dirty democrat with a moron republican up against them….which one you gonna choose?