Blagojevich Defense: Client is a "Motormouth" Who Never Got a Dime

By Jeralyn, Section Corruption Cases
Posted on Thu Jun 09, 2011 at 08:53:08 PM EST
Tags: Rod Blagojevich (all tags)

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Closing arguments have ended in the retrial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The jury has been instructed and will begin deliberating in the morning.

Crux of the defense closing: Rod never made a dime and is "a motor-mouth who talks endlessly" thinking out loud:

"He talked over me, over the judge, over the prosecutor,” said Goldstein, reminding jurors that when Blagojevich was on the stand he would often ignore his own attorney’s objections to questions from a prosecutor and answer before Zagel could rule.

“He likes to talk,” Goldstein said. “That’s all you heard. (Prosecutors) want you to believe this talk is a crime. It’s not. He floated ideas and that’s all it is.”

[More...]

Blago's lawyer also pointed out the fallacy in a hypothetical the Government presented as comparable to Blago. The Government gave the example of a cop who asks for a bribe and ends up not taking it. The cop, the Government said, still broke the law.

The fallacy with the argument, says Goldstein: Asking for a bribe is illegal, asking for a campaign contribution is not.

Blago needs to convince one juror, and get that juror to hold out. Can he do it?

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Blagojevich Defense: Client is a "Motormouth" Who Never Got a Dime | 2 comments (2 topical)

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looks like reasonable doubt to me (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by desmoinesdem on Fri Jun 10, 2011 at 07:41:47 AM EST

I haven't followed the trial closely, but why wouldn't "He likes to talk" have the ring of truth for jurors who watched Blago the motormouth in action? Goldstein seems like a good attorney.

It works for me (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by esmense on Fri Jun 10, 2011 at 09:19:48 AM EST

Not a Blago fan, but, having seen him in action, it's obvious he doesn't have a censor on what comes out of his mouth. "Discretion" is not a concept he's familiar with or capable of. If all they've got is talk, they don't have anything. (If talk is all it takes, bugging Blago would likely come up with a couple of interesting "crimes" and a bevy of embarassing indescretions per day, from now into eternity.)