Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Hit With 14 Years In Federal Slammer

Blagojevich with a 14-year sentence:

Disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison after making a final plea for leniency, acknowledging his guilt and saying, “I am unbelievably sorry.”

“I believe he did, in fact, accept [responsibility],” U.S. District Judge James Zagel said in announcing how long Blagojevich should spend in prison after being convicted of 18 corruption charges that included attempting to sell or trade an appointment to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the election of President Barack Obama.

I will say that I do have some problems with the case against him. First, why were portions of the tapes declared off limits? Blago's lawyers have long wanted, including as of last week, all the tapes in totality released, the prosecutor and the judge won't allow it. What's up with that? See http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Blagojevich-Blago-Attorneys-Tapes-134487403.html as an example. I'm surprised Blago's defense that he was not trying to sell the Obama Senate seat, but rather get political exchanges such as commitments regarding passing certain legislation in exchange for his appointment, didn't go anywhere in court. I've only heard a few snippets of audio that the prosecutor released, but it would seem that defense might be plausible, especially when it's the Blago side that wants the tapes released in full and some of his allegedly most incriminating statements can be read in that light.

I also have suspicions about the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald being a grandstanding press conference holding political witch-hunting hack, because after all he is the same guy that after years could only put Scooter Libby away (though his sentence was commuted) for having a different story than Tim Russert, but could nail no one on any underlying crime in the Valerie Plame affair. It was known, and it has been admitted, that dovish Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage was the first to release Plame's name, Fitzgerald knew this and instead kept his case in the media where there was constant talk of indicting Dick Cheney or Karl Rove which of course never happened. No charges were ever brought against Armitage. Tweet