Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (42880)	4/22/2010 10:27:05 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Blagojevich Seeks Witness: Obama APRIL 23, 2010. By DOUGLAS BELKIN And JOE BARRETT CHICAGO—With his trial on corruption charges weeks away, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich sought an unusual witness for the defense: President Barack Obama. Mr. Blagojevich's lawyers Thursday asked U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel to subpoena the president's testimony, arguing that "President Obama has direct knowledge to allegations made in the indictment." Spokesmen for the White House and federal prosecutors declined to comment. The former governor's trial is set to start June 3, a year and a half after he was ousted from office amid prosecutors' allegations that he had plotted to sell the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Mr. Obama when he was elected president. Mr. Blagojevich has maintained a high public profile while aggressively proclaiming his innocence. He published a memoir, "The Governor, Finally, the Truth Behind the Political Scandal That Continues to Rock the Nation," and appeared on a reality show, Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice." He also planned to star on NBC's "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" but Judge Zagel refused to allow him to leave the country to tape the program. His wife, Patti, appeared instead. On Saturday, he is slated to appear at an event featuring a stepbrother of the late Elvis Presley. At a news conference this week, he called U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a coward. Mr. Fitzgerald brought the corruption charges against Mr. Blagojevich and has challenged the former governor's effort to make public all 500 hours of secretly recorded tapes at the heart of the case. In an 11-page motion filed Thursday, Mr. Blagojevich's attorneys argued that only Mr. Obama could resolve what they called contradictions between his public statements and the prosecutors' case. Mr. Obama has said no representatives of his had anything to do with alleged deals for the Senate seat, according to the motion. Mr. Blagojevich argues those statements "contradict the testimony of an important government witness." The filing said the witness was a union representative, without naming the person. Mr. Obama is "the only one who can say if emissaries were sent on his behalf, who those emissaries were, and what, if anything, those emissaries were instructed to do on his behalf," the motion said. The alleged contradictory information was redacted in Thursday's filing. In the motion, Mr. Blagojevich also contends that Mr. Obama may have pertinent information about Antoin Rezko, a government witness in the trial, who was found guilty in 2008 on charges of bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mr. Rezko and Mr. Obama became friendly in 1990 and Mr. Rezko helped Mr. Obama purchase his house in Chicago. All Mr. Obama's testimony would involve things that happened before he became president so he can't invoke executive privilege, attorneys for Mr. Blagojevich contended. Brad Berenson, a former associate White House counsel to President George W. Bush and today a white-collar criminal-defense lawyer, said it was possible the trial judge would agree to subpoena the president, but that his testimony would need to be central to the question of Mr. Blagojevich's guilt or innocence. "No judge wants to create a pointless sideshow" that a subpoena of a sitting president might entail, he said, "unless it was really necessary." It is unusual but not unprecedented for a sitting president to testify at a trial. The Supreme Court held in 1974 that President Richard Nixon was obligated to comply with a subpoena in criminal trials of his appointees after the Watergate scandal. President Bill Clinton was deposed while in office. Another precedent cited by Mr. Blagojevich's attorneys: Thomas Jefferson was subpoenaed in the 1807 treason trial of Aaron Burr. Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com online.wsj.com