Williad Fire, 16, crossed illegally into South Afr
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Date: 1/24/2009 10:22:09 AM
Sender: Obama
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Williad Fire, 16, crossed illegally into South Africa from Zimbabwe with eight friends after the deaths of his parents and an uncle.
Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois spoke on WLS-AM on Friday in Chicago, where he said he acted for the good of the state.
CHICAGO — When state senators open their impeachment trial of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in the Capitol on Monday, one seat is all but certain to be empty: that of Mr. Blagojevich himself.
Even as senators, staff lawyers and others in Springfield, the capital, scrambled this week to complete preparations for a trial the likes of which no one here has taken part in, Mr. Blagojevich and his lawyers said they would not participate, ignoring deadlines to answer the accusations against him, to request witnesses, even to demand a dismissal.
Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat who was widely unpopular with lawmakers long before his arrest on federal corruption charges last month, denounced the Senate’s trial on Friday as a “trampling of the Constitution” and tried to take his case instead to the public, in what is expected to be a sustained campaign of news interviews.
“This is politics,” Mr. Blagojevich told morning listeners on a local AM talk radio show, in the governor’s first lengthy interview since his arrest on Dec. 9. “They want to get me out fast so they can put a huge income tax increase on the people of Illinois, an income tax increase that I fought for six years.”
The battle over the fate of Mr. Blagojevich, who could be removed from office as early as next week, seemed to split down separate paths. One: the governor, who is scheduled to appear on “Good Morning America” and “The View” on ABC on the first day of his trial, urging the public to take a hard look at what he described as rushed, unfair trial rules. Two: lawmakers saying they will press forward with or without the governor.
Governors have rarely faced impeachment trials, and never in Illinois. This Senate’s last such trial, against a member of the judiciary, was in 1833. And the State Constitution offers only the broadest of guidelines.
“In terms of institutional knowledge, we didn’t have any of that,” said Eric Madiar, the Senate president’s chief legal counsel, who said he had spent scores of hours in recent weeks working with others on 8 to 10 drafts of trial rules (and consulting books like “Impeachment: A Handbook,” by Charles L. Black Jr., a leading authority on constitutional law). “We needed to further spell out how things worked.”
Lawmakers say they sought guidance from the impeachment trials of President Bill Clinton in 1999 and Gov. Evan Mecham of Arizona in 1988, and the Senate procedures will be largely modeled on those used in Mr. Clinton’s trial. Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald of the State Supreme Court will preside, though senators, serving as judges and jurors, can choose to vote down rulings they disagree with. Hearsay is allowed. The standard of proof is essentially up to each senator to decide.
And in the end, for Mr. Blagojevich to be removed, two-thirds of the Democratic-dominated Senate (or at least 40 of 59 senators) must approve.
Among those scheduled to appear as witnesses for the prosecution next week are state representatives who were members of the impeachment committee. The panel met for seven days before recommending that Mr. Blagojevich be impeached on accusations that he tried to sell the United States Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, traded state contracts for campaign contributions and expanded a state health care program without legal legislative authority.
Some legal experts and even senators said they had expected the prosecution to call more witnesses who dealt directly with Mr. Blagojevich in connection with each accusation.
“I found it stunning,” said Ann M. Lousin, a law professor at the John Marshall Law School and an expert on the Illinois Constitution. “What are the legislators from the House going to say they know personally?”
Complicating the impeachment trial is the ongoing investigation of federal prosecutors here. At least one federal agent is expected to testify at the trial, but others connected to the criminal accusations are not. One Senate rule bars witnesses from being subpoenaed if federal prosecutors believe it might compromise their case, a fact Mr. Blagojevich complained bitterly about to reporters on Friday.
Though he has filed no request for witnesses, the governor said he wished to call a long list of people who were not permitted to be called by the rules, including Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff; Valerie Jarrett, an Obama senior adviser; and governors of other states who would testify, he said, to his upstanding behavior.
In his radio interview and in a later news conference, Mr. Blagojevich said that he had done nothing wrong and that his situation was larger than himself.
“If they can do this to a governor,” he said, “they can do this to any citizen in Illinois.”
At various points, Mr. Blagojevich, who for weeks has said he is dying to tell his side of story, said he and his family had come to think of the day of his arrest as “our personal Pearl Harbor day.” He apologized for using profanity during phone calls intercepted by federal agents. He spoke of growing up in a working-class family in a five-room Chicago apartment. He compared his recent experience to a Frank Capra film in which “the good guy was up against the establishment.”
He later compared his circumstance to those found in the cowboy movies he favors. “They’re just hanging me,” he said. “They’re hanging the 12 million people of Illinois who twice have elected a governor.”
By day’s end, after the flurry of statements by Mr. Blagojevich, Ed Genson, a criminal defense lawyer who is well known in Chicago, told reporters he was withdrawing as the governor’s lawyer.
“I never require a client to do what I say,” he said, “but I do require them to at least listen.”
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