HE former Illinois governor accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated US senate seat to the highest bidder tossed around the idea of tapping talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, a Chicago court heard.
Rod Blagojevich’s reasoning in the secret 2008 recording: the billionaire was President Obama’s “king-maker,” and the then-governor thought he, too, could be anointed.
“She’s a king-maker. She made Obama,” Mr Blagojevich told his then-chief of staff John Harris.
“She’s up there so high that no one can assail this pick. This would be huge.”
“That’s crazy,” Mr Harris replies in a conversation recorded by the FBI.
Mr Blagojevich shoots back “That’s where you’re wrong.”
Mr Blagojevich, 53, faces 24 charges of corruption, racketeering, bribery and fraud in what prosecutors have called a “political corruption crime spree” which allegedly began before he took office in 2003.
Prosecutors have played scores of tapes from the secret recordings which began in late October 2008 and continued until his December 9, 2008 arrest during the weeks-long trial.
Mr Blagojevich was ousted from office by an outraged legislature the following month, but not before he appointed Roland Burris — the first African-American to be elected to a statewide office in Illinois — to the empty seat.
Jurors have heard Mr Blagojevich discuss a host of perks he hoped to received — like an ambassadorship or a lucrative job working for a charity — due to the fact that he was tasked with the job of picking Mr Obama’s replacement.
Mr Blagojevich has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and defense lawyers told jurors at the beginning of trial that the former governor didn’t “take a dime”.
In the recording, Mr Harris continues to query Mr Blagojevich on the possibility of tapping Winfrey:
“Is it that you’re trying to shed some grace on thee?” he asks, as Mr Blagojevich continues to point to the good Winfrey had done for Mr Obama.
The flamboyant governor can also be heard continuing to throw out possibilities for appointments.
“Maybe a black Albert Einstein,” he suggests at one point. At another, he suggests a “Mother Teresa-type”.
He even considers appointing people from out of state — including California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — with the justification that Mr Obama wasn’t really from Illinois.
Be the first to comment