When is the blagojevich retrial

The accusation that Blagojevich tried to profit as he considered whom to appoint to succeed Obama, among other allegations, prompted his impeachment by Illinois' House of Representatives and his removal from office by the state Senate in Blagojevich was taken into federal custody in December , less than two years into his second term as governor.

A federal grand jury indicted in him April At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said court-authorized wiretaps caught Blagojevich offering Obama's Senate seat in exchange for personal gain, including a job with a nonprofit or union organization, corporate board posts for his wife, campaign contributions or a post in Obama's administration.

He expressed frustration, according to prosecutors, that Obama transition officials were "not willing to give me anything except appreciation. I'm not gonna do it," prosecutors quoted Blagojevich as saying. Blagojevich also considered appointing himself to the post, mulling whether he might be better off being indicted as a senator rather than governor, and saying contacts he would make in the federal job would benefit him later, according to prosecutors.

Aside from the charges of trying to sell the Senate seat, prosecutors also accused Blagojevich of using his position to obtain financial benefits for himself, his family and his campaign in exchange for jobs, contracts and appointments to state boards to supporters. They accused Blagojevich of accelerating the scheme in to accumulate funds before a new state ethics law would have limited his ability to raise money from people and companies that were doing business with the state.

Along with Blagojevich, prosecutors initially also charged his brother, Robert Blagojevich, with one count of wire fraud, one count of extortion conspiracy, one count of attempted extortion and one count of bribery conspiracy in connection with his brother's alleged Senate-seat-selling plan.

But a week after jurors came back from the first trial deadlocked on most of the counts against Rod Blagojevich and all the charges against his brother, prosecutors dropped charges against Robert Blagojevich.

The former Cook County, Illinois, assistant prosecutor, state representative and Golden Gloves boxer had remained in the public eye since his removal from office, appearing in a Chicago comedy show, releasing an autobiography, and competing on the TV show "Celebrity Apprentice.

Share this on:. Rowlands: Blagojevich clearly upset. Most Popular. The youthful ex-Governor had grand ambitions of national office. Judge Zagel will sentence Blagojevich in the coming weeks or months. Even with all his righteous anger, Blagojevich, a lawyer by trade and a cunning politician always, seemed to me at times resigned to this fate.

Appearing hand in hand with Patti in the courthouse lobby after the verdict, he made perhaps his shortest media appearance ever. He then said he and Patti were going home to explain the situation to their daughters, Amy, fifteen, and Annie, eight.

More: Rod Blagojevich. But Monday, as he left court with his wife, Patti, Blagojevich was nearly tongue-tied. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who famously held a news conference after Blagojevich's arrest to say investigators had stopped a "political corruption crime spree" and that the misconduct would make Abraham Lincoln roll over in his grave. Blagojevich did not get that message.

Blagojevich once fancied himself presidential material, but even before his December arrest, his popularity with voters had dropped to record low levels, and he found himself a pariah in his own Democratic Party. He was impeached and removed from office a couple of months after his arrest. Coupled with the lone guilty count from last summer's trial, Blagojevich has now been convicted of 18 counts of wire fraud, bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy and lying to theFBI.

The new jury voted to find Blagojevich not guilty of one bribery count involving an alleged fundraising shakedown of a road-building executive. The panel also deadlocked on two other counts, one also involving the road builder and the other concerning an alleged fundraising shakedown of then-U.

Rahm Emanuel, now Chicago's mayor. In his first trial, Blagojevich declined to testify but changed tactics for the retrial and took the stand for seven days. One juror said she found Blagojevich "personable" and said his likability complicated deliberations, but another said the panel found the testimony "manipulative" and that the testimony didn't help him. Blagojevich had little visible reaction in court as the first guilty count was read, but then he sat back in his chair with his lips pursed and glanced toward his wife after the first three counts were all guilty.

He eventually mouthed the words "I love you" toward his wife, who was in the first row crying and leaning on her brother. Moments after the jury left the room, Blagojevich embraced her and cradled her head, telling her it would be all right. The trial exhibited multiple Blagojevich personalities, the manic and almost desperate-sounding schemer heard on wiretaps; the strident and outraged everyman fighting the system that came out in multiple media appearances following his arrest; and the humble, polite and modest presence on the witness stand before jurors.

Likewise, there was an oddly schizophrenic nature to the Blagojevich defense, both the one he waged in court and the one he waged with vocal and strident indignation in the media. Almost in the same breath, the Blagojevich narrative portrayed him as a paragon of ethics and a wheeling-dealing practitioner of politics as usual in a system he frequently decried as corrupt.