Blago: Call off Retrial
Politico reports:
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is asking a federal judge to cancel his upcoming retrial and to sentence him on his one conviction from his previous trial.
In a motion filed early Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the former governor says that mounting legal expenses are becoming too much for him to bear and, while he’s not conceding guilt, he’d rather be sentenced on one charge than have to go through another trial this spring.
Blagojevich stepped down in 2009 under allegations that he sought personal gain in exchange for appointing someone to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he was elected president. He was charged with solicitation of bribes, mail fraud and other corruption charges.
Last summer, Blagojevich’s first trial ended with the jury hung on 23 of the 24 counts against him. He was convicted of lying to the FBI, a charge that could bring a sentence of up to five years in prison. Some of the other charges against him come with maximum sentences of 20 years.
If the second trial were to be canceled, “funds for the second trial would no longer be necessary,” the motion says, and Blagojevich’s prosecution would come at “no further cost to taxpayers.”
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