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Blagojevich Report Timeline

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Here are the Obama related dates pertaining to Rod Blagojevich–taken from the report on contacts with Blago and the complaint.

October 31: Blago approached by "emissary" from Jesse Jackson Jr about Senate seat

November 3: Blago spoke with Deputy Governor A and Advisor A about Senate seat; mentions Jarrett

November 4: Obama elected President; Deputy Governor A suggests Blago put a list of things he might ask for in exchange for the Senate seat; Blago also speaks with John Harris about the seat

November 5: Blago and Deputy Governor A talk about possibility of HHS appointment for Senate seat; Blago and Harris talk about a foundation appointment; (approximately) Blago talks to Tom Balanoff (SEIU) and "understood that [Balanoff] was an emissary to discuss [Jarrett]’s interest in the Senate seat"

November 6: Rahm Emanuel accepts Chief of Staff position; Blago gives a leak to Michael Sneed designed "to send a message to the [Obama] people" that Madigan might get the Senate seat over Jarrett

November 6-8: Louanner Peters called Eric Whitaker to ask who spoke for Obama regarding his preferences for his replacement; Obama told Whitaker no one had that authority, which Whitaker "relayed" this to Peters

November 6-8: Rahm has "one or two" conversations with Blago, about his own seat, as well as Senate seat; Rahm has four conversations with John Harris about the Senate seat

November 7: Blago tells Advisor A he’s willing to "trade" the Senate seat for Secretary of HHS; Blago discusses HHS with Harris and Advisor B and talks about 3-way deal with SEIU; Tom Balanoff (local SEIU head) tells Valerie Jarrett that Blago asked whether he might be named HHS; in the same conversation, Balanoff told Jarrett he had talked to Blago about Jarrett for the Senate seat; Balanoff mentioned that Blago had also mentioned Madigan

November 9: Valerie Jarrett withdraws from consideration; Obama talks about Senate candidates with Rahm, with the understanding he would pass on those candidates

November 10: Long conference call about the seat, including discussions about a non-profit in exchange for the seat; Blago admits he’s not going to get HHS; Blago plants leak with Sneed about Jesse Jackson Jr.

November 11: Blago complains that, "they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation"

November 12: Blago notes that CNN has reported Jarrett is uninterested in Senate seat; Blago talks to Balanoff, probes about whether Jarrett is interested in Senate seat and proposes 401c4; Balanoff says he will "“put that flag up and see where it goes"

November 13: Blago says he wants to be able to call Rahm and say, "this has nothing to do with anything else we’re working on but the Governor wants to put together a 501(c)(4)" and that when Rahm "asks me for the Fifth CD thing I want it to be in his head"; Blago then asks Advisor A to have Individual A (believed to be John Wyma, who is cooperating with Fitzgerald) propose the 501c4 to Rahm; Advisor A says, "while it’s not said this is a play to put in play other things" and Blago agrees

[November 13 is the last reference to negotiations with Obama’s team in the complaint]

December 4: Blago talks about reaching out to JJJ’s people about him rising in consideration, partly because they would raise funds

December 5:  Trib reveals Blago has been wiretapped; Blago tries to pull back discussions related to JJJ

December 6: Fundraiser for JJJ hosted by JJJ’s emissary; some participants believe the fundraiser pertains to the Senate seat

December 7: Fitz gets arrest warrant for Blago

December 8: JJJ and Blago meet about the Senate seat

December 9: Blago arrested; Obama team learns of it from public reports

December 11: Obama team begins to conduct inquiry into contacts with Blago; Read more →

The Blagojevich Contacts: Only 5-6 Contacts with Rahm on the Senate Seat, But the Report Does Not Cover Rahm’s Seat

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The Obama team has released its report of contacts between the Transition Team and Governor Blagojevich.

With regards to the question of whether or not anyone in Obama’s team talked with Blago about Obama’s replacement, the contacts are innocuous: the only Transition Team member who had any contacts was Rahm, who had "one or two" with Blago and four with John Harris. (According to Greg Craig, Rahm can’t remember whether it was one or two contacts with Blago.)

But curiously, the Obama team very narrowly crafted the question to cover only conversations about Obama’s replacement!!

I arranged for transition staff to provide accounts of any contacts that you or they may have had with Governor Blagojevich or his office in which the subject of your successor came up.

This, even though one of Blago’s conversations references "the 5th CD thing," suggesting an imminent conversation between Blago and Rahm about the special election to replace Rahm, White House Counsel to-be Greg Craig didn’t ask about such conversations.

In addition, on a conference call about the report, Craig stated that he hadn’t known about the Fox report that Rahm had tipped Fitzgerald off to Blago conversations; that seems like a worthwhile question to ask Rahm, don’t you think?

I will try to get some clarification on whether Craig even asked Rahm whether he had talked to Blago about his own replacement; but in the meantime, you can rest assured that Obama was not chumming it up with Blago directly.

Clarification:

As WO and MD point out, Rahm’s House seat does come up:

Soon after he decided to accept the President-Elect’s offer to serve as Chief of Staff in the White House, Mr. Emanuel placed a call to the Governor to give him a heads up that he was taking the Chief of Staff’s position in the White House, and to advise him that he would be resigning his seat in the House of Representatives. They spoke about Mr. Emanuel’s House seat, when he would be resigning and potential candidates to replace him.

My complaint about this report is that it is either amateur in its execution or deliberate in its narrowness, but they apparently never asked Rahm, "How many conversations did you have with Blago and Co about your OWN seat, in addition to the 5-6 that pertained to the Senate seat?" Read more →

Rahm and “that 5th CD Thing”

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At his shiny new shack out back of the Big Orange Satan, Kagro X links to this article describing how Rahm is uninvolved (publicly at least) in the fight to replace him.

Rahm Emanuel’s role in attempting to influence Gov. Blagojevich’s choice of a U.S. Senate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama could impact the heated race to fill another important vacancy: Emanuel’s own seat in Congress.

Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Daley’s unofficial City Council floor leader, had hoped to emerge from the crowded field of candidates in the 5th Congressional District by winning Daley’s support and by persuading Emanuel to use his formidable powers of persuasion to clear the field.

But now that the Chicago Sun-Times has lifted the veil on Emanuel’s efforts to persuade Blagojevich to appoint Obama family friend Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate, Emanuel has — as one veteran ward boss put it — "gone underground."

The new White House chief of staff is reluctant to get involved in the 5th District race, which has attracted more than two dozen candidates.

Of course, the Sun-Times presents this as a reaction to the news that Rahm was involved in discussions over Obama’s seat.

But I would suggest that it’s one more piece of evidence that suggests Rahm was involved in discussions–real or imagined–over his own seat.

After all, aside from calling the Special Election, Blago is not involved in this election: Richard Daley is the kingmaker here, not Blago. So why would Rahm’s involvement in discussions about the Senate seat prevent him from getting involved in discussions about his own seat?

As I’ve discussed, there’s evidence that Rahm and Blago (or Rahm and Blago’s flunkies) talked about more than the Senate seat.  The only mention of Rahm in the complaint, after all, includes this passage:

On November 13, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with JOHN HARRIS. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he wanted to be able to call “[President-elect Advisor]” and tell President-elect Advisor that “this has nothing to do with anything else we’re working on but the Governor wants to put together a 501(c)(4)” and “can you guys help him. . . raise 10, 15 million.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said he wanted “[President-elect Advisor] to get the word today,” and that when “he asks me for the Fifth CD thing I want it to be in his head.” Read more →

Rahm’s 21 Conversations with Blagojevich and Friends?

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I’ve been boring you all by repeatedly pointing to this passage in the complaint against Blago:

This affidavit does not include all calls dealing with the corrupt efforts of ROD BLAGOJEVICH, JOHN HARRIS, and others to misuse the power of ROD BLAGOJEVICH to appoint a United States Senator for the personal gain of ROD BLAGOJEVICH and his family, nor does this affidavit set forth other calls where ROD BLAGOJEVICH and others discussed a possible appointment to the Senate seat based on considerations other than financial gain for ROD BLAGOJEVICH and his family, discussions which took place with greater frequency after efforts to arrange for a private job for ROD BLAGOJEVICH in exchange for appointing a particular candidate to the open Senate seat did not meet with success. [my emphasis]

I have even suggested that, given the narrative Fitz constructs, it is quite likely that those discussions–which took place with greater frequency after Obama told Blago they’d only give "appreciation" and not a high paying job–took place between Rahm Emanuel and Blago’s folks.

Well, who knows who is using Michael Sneed as a mouthpiece this time … but my speculation that Rahm was involved in those "greater frequency" calls seems to be on the right track.

Sneed hears rumbles President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is reportedly on 21 different taped conversations by the feds — dealing with his boss’ vacant Senate seat! 

A lot of chit-chat?

Hot air?

Or trouble?

Given the seemingly Rahm-generated leaks so far, it seems we can count on two conversations around November 1 (delivering the list of acceptable candidates, thereby setting Blago off to write a list of things to demand in return), several conversations around November 10 (telling Blago that the only thing he’d get would be appreciation), and then a conversation after Blago planned to start trading around Rahm’s House seat on November 13. 

That is, we can account for about 7 conversations between the complaint and the seeming pre-emptive leaking out of Rahm’s camp. 

Which would seem to leave phone calls with "greater frequency" in the days after November 13, when Blago kept scrambling for something of value from the President-elect. But note, if I’m right that these conversations are about something of non-monetary value, then they may get even more interesting as we go forward.

Fitz to Obama: Twas a Week before Fitzmas

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I’ve been saying that the wingnut calls for Obama to release all the gory details of what Rahm said to Blago (it went something like: fuck fuck fuck shit asshole fuck) probably didn’t account for Fitz’ well-known desire that witnesses in his investigations remain silent until he can complete the investigation.

Now, Obama has made it clear that Fitz has asked for a delay.

"At the direction of the President-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed and is ready for release.  That review affirmed the public statements of the President-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the President-elect’s staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as US Senator.

"Also at the President-elect’s direction, Gregory Craig, counsel to the Transition, has kept the US Attorney’s office informed of this fact-gathering process in order to ensure our full cooperation with the investigation.

"In the course of those discussions, the US Attorney’s office requested the public release of the Transition review be deferred until the week of December 22, in order not to impede their investigation of the governor.  The Transition has agreed to this revised timetable for release," said Obama Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. [my emphasis]

If nothing else, that gives us a good idea of how much longer Fitz thinks he might need before he gets an actual indictment. 

Is Rahm Still Running for Speaker of the House?

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nuzzling-speaker.thumbnail.jpg

(Alex Wong/Getty Images photo)

Or is Blago delirious about that too?

I’m finally getting around to reading the collected works of Michael Sneed, the woman scribe calls "this scandal’s Judy." Sneed is the columnist whom Blago was using to launder his leaks about the Senate selection process, feeding her false information about his leading candidates, with the intention of pressuring Obama and others to respond accordingly. (Incidentally, TheraP pointed to this diary which claimed Sneed’s more embarrassing columns were getting removed from the Sun-Times archive, but they’re actually still there; it’s just that they go behind the pay firewall after one month.)

Given that we know Blago was using Sneed in that way, I’m particularly interested in her column from November 14 (which also just went behind the firewall).  In it, she has what may well be another regurgitated Blago rant.

IS IT EMIL? Sneed hears Gov. Blago, who will choose Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, privately feels there may be only one choice that makes sense: His buddy, outgoing Senate President Emil Jones. – To wit: Jones is this/close to Blago, who may pay his pal back for being such a staunch ally. Jones would also be a strong ally in the Senate for his political godson — Obama.

– Hmmm: Isn’t it true Gov. Blago, who truly believes a federal indictment is not in his future, is hoping Jones would be a placeholder until 2010 — when Gov. Rod could opt for a Senate seat or another run at the governorship? Is someone smoking posies?

Fitz’s chronology ends on November 13–which would presumably be the day Blago would have leaked this to Sneed for her November 14 column; the complaint doesn’t confirm that the leak came from Blago. Yet the attribution seems to clearly point to Blago, and given the sheer number of leaks she was getting from him, it seems likely that he was her source for this, too. 

With that in mind, check out the news that led that column:

Incoming & outgoing: The rumor mill is going berserk!- To wit: Top Dem wags are whispering Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama’s new chief of staff, plans to exit the White House in two years in hopes of reclaiming his congressional seat — thereby enabling him to work toward becoming speaker of the House, his dream job.

Read more →

Why Wasn’t the Guy Whose Daddy Wanted to “Cut His Nuts Off” Acceptable to Obama?

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There was a significant detail in the Trib’s Rahm-talking-to-Blago story. The story lists who Obama considered acceptable candidates to replace him in the Senate.

Another source said that contact between the Obama camp and the governor’s administration regarding the Senate seat began the Saturday before the Nov. 4 election, when Emanuel made a call to the cell phone of Harris. The conversation took place around the same time press reports surfaced about Emanuel being approached about taking the high-level White House post should Obama win.

Emanuel delivered a list of candidates who would be "acceptable" to Obama, the source said. On the list were Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Illinois Veterans Affairs director Tammy Duckworth, state Comptroller Dan Hynes and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, the source said. All are Democrats.

Sometime after the election, Emanuel called Harris back to add the name of Democratic Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan to the approved list, the source said.

Note who is missing from this list?

Obama national campaign co-chair, Jesse Jackson Jr. 

There are a lot of reasons why Obama may not have favored JJJ replacing him in the Senate–including JJJ’s own statements that broke Obama’s "no drama Obama" campaign rule. 

A contributing factor, though, may be that JJJ’s father was publicly taped threatening to cut Obama’s nuts off.

I raise this not to talk about the President-elect’s nuts, but to point to an underlying (and potentially explicit) tension in Blago’s efforts to sell Obama’s senate seat. JJJ’s fundraiser Raghuveer Nayak may have approached Blago about the seat on October 31. Then, just one day later, Rahm apparently called John Harris and told him that Obama did not want JJJ to replace him in the Senate.

Recall, too, the reference to Obama that JJJ made in his press conference on the Senate seat.

But watching the president-elect carry himself in such an extraordinary way across this country to build bridges that had never been built in this country, even I had become inspired.

And so somewhere along the way, over the last two and a half years, I got the idea that if a skinny kid with a funny name could be president of the United States, that a short kid with a somewhat controversial but certainly a high profile name could be a senator from Illinois.

JJJ delivered that "even I" with pointed emphasis, almost bitterness.

Read more →

Rahm Spoke to His Bleeping Bleep Twin

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As Gregg posted at the mother-ship, Chicago’s Fox affiliate reported today that Rahm did speak to Blagojevich, a seeming soulmate who likes to say fuck as much as Rahm does. There’s a couple of interesting points about this report.

A source familiar with the investigation confirmed for Fox Chicago News that Rahm Emanuel did in fact have multiple conversations with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris about the Senate seat. The source says there was a list of names given to the Governor’s office of candidates that would be acceptable to President-elect Barack Obama. The conversations happened after the FBI wiretaps were in place and after Emanuel was named Obama’s Chief of Staff early last month. The timing of the conversations made it likely, the source says, that the phone conversations were recorded and are in the hands of the FBI.

Note that this is the same outlet that reported on Tuesday that,

CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.

The reporter who reported it is different, but the outlet is the same (and Tuesday’s reporter used the first person plural, so the actual recipient of the Rahm tips may be the same). Of course, Rahm called that first report "over-zealous reporting," but since "over-zealous" is different from inaccurate, Fox may have gone back to it.

Now look at the details this source provides. Rough dates for the contacts: after October 22, when the taps were placed, and after November 6, when Rahm was named Chief of Staff, which certainly is in line with the appearance that someone spoke to Obama’s team on November 10 and that Blago was planning to speak with Rahm on November 13. But if the source’s dates are correct, then Rahm spoke to Blago only after Blago started plotting his demands on November 3. In other words, if you needed any more assurances than you already had, Blago (or JJJ’s emissary, on October 31) dreamt up selling the Senate seat, not Rahm.

Read more →

Withdrawing Jarrett’s Candidacy as an F-U to Blagojevich

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The WSJ notices something I pointed out Tuesday. There was a two-hour meeting on November 10 at which Blago’s team tried to concoct a way to get Obama’s team to give something of value in exchange for Valerie Jarrett’s appointment to replace Obama as Senator. Here’s my version:

Then, on November 10, Blago appeared to have gotten his first rebuff from the Obama team. On that day, Blago and his aides (and his wife), including Advisor B, had a two hour conference call with advisors in DC, brainstorming ways they could "monetize" the Senate seat. At one point, Blago said that he would appoint Jarrett,"but if they feel like they can do this and not fucking give me anything . . . then I’ll fucking go [Senate Candidate 5].” At that point, Blago’s already incensed at Obama, saying, "“motherfucker [Obama] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.” […] By November 11, […] Blago said, “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them," it seems Obama has clearly already rebuffed Blago’s efforts.  And by the 12th, public reports had Jarrett announcing she didn’t want the seat.

The WSJ corrects my version, though, in one respect: it points out that CNN reported the night of the 10th that Jarrett withdrew her candidacy. Here’s CNN:

Two Democratic sources close to President-elect Barack Obama tell CNN that top adviser Valerie Jarrett will not be appointed to replace him in the U.S. Senate.

"While he (Obama) thinks she would be a good senator, he wants her in the White House," one top Obama advisor told CNN Monday.

But I think the WSJ asks the wrong question about the coincidence of these events. It asks,

But the big question today is this: Were any members of his transition team among the "Washington advisers" on the line during this marathon conference call, or did one of the participants fill them in about these wild ideas?

[snip]

At a bare minimum, the timing of Team Obama’s decision to remove Ms. Jarrett’s name from contention, or at least to remove her name from the public speculation about the post, seems extraordinarily lucky. It came on the very same day the FBI secretly recorded Mr. Blagojevich telling a huge conference call loaded with politicos, in Illinois and Washington, that he wasn’t about to give the Senate spot away for nothing.

Read more →

Weeds, For Mark Ambinder

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I will leave it to those with much finer senses of snark than me to slam that crappy reporting of the NYT.

But this post from Mark Ambinder got my weed whacker out of whack, so I wanted to point out a few details for Ambinder, who is usually not so sloppy.

First, Ambinder crowns the guy who turned in Blago’s Senate seat sale as the most powerful guy around.

The most powerful person in Illinois politics is not David Axelrod. Not Valerie Jarrett. Not either the Daleys. Not either of the Madigans. Not Patrick Fitzgerald. It’s the person who dropped a dime on Rod Blagojevich, and it’s all the people who have information that Fitzgerald might be interested in. Someone dropped a dime on the Senate seat matter. Someone got fed up with the pettiness and went to the U.S. Attorney

Given the timeline, that "most powerful person in Illinois" appears to have been an FBI agent, listening to wiretaps placed at least a week before the "pettiness" in question began. I’m all in favor of celebrating the FBI’s work on this case. But it doesn’t mean that FBI agent is the most powerful woman in the room right now.

Then there’s this muddle.

Note: Fitzgerald didn’t seem to say, or didn’t say at all, that having a full and public accounting from the Obama team about their Blago contacts would damage his investigation.  Randal Samborn — am I wrong? Greg Craig? In fact, whereas, in the Valerie Plame investigation, President Bush may have been tangentially involved, or at least had an inkling that subordinates of his were involved, Obama does not have the same constraints.  There is no legal reason why he can’t comment, speculate, or engage in idle rumors on this whole turn of events. This isn’t to suggest that Obama should make off-the-cuff remarks about this or not take it seriously… it’s just that there doesn’t seem to be the same (veneer of a) legal justification for not doing so.

Mind you, I certainly agree that it would behoove Obama to get further out in front of this than he has thus far done. Read more →