Former top aide says Blagojevich signaled to Obama through labor leader he wanted Cabinet post
By Mike Robinson, APWednesday, June 23, 2010
Aide: Blagojevich signaled he wanted Cabinet post
CHICAGO — Only days after the November 2008 election, Rod Blagojevich told his top advisers he had signaled the president-elect that he would appoint Barack Obama’s friend to the U.S. Senate in exchange for a Cabinet position for himself, the ousted governor’s former chief of staff testified Wednesday.
John Harris said the governor told him he met with prominent labor union official Tom Balanoff, who was acting as an intermediary between Obama and Blagojevich, and made it plain to both Balanoff and Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett that he was willing to make a trade — the Senate seat for the post of secretary of health and human services.
“So she now knows she could be a senator if I get health and human services,” Blagojevich is heard saying on an FBI tape of a conversation between the then-governor and his advisers.
Harris, now a federal witness, said in court that FBI tapes made in the days following the election showed that Blagojevich was “very confident that the president understands the governor would be willing to make the appointment of Valerie Jarrett as long as he gets what he has asked for — the governor gets the Cabinet post he’s asked for.”
Balanoff came to Blagojevich immediately after Obama won and delivered a message that Obama wanted Jarrett, a Chicago businesswoman and former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, to succeed him in the Senate seat he was leaving for the White House.
It was at that point that Blagojevich first told Balanoff of his interest in a Cabinet position in return for naming Jarrett, Harris testified. But he said Balanoff later sent word through Doug Schofield, a consultant and former Blagojevich staff member, that the Obama people “didn’t know what to make of his request.”
Blagojevich concluded that they were “squeamish” because they weren’t interested in a deal but merely wanted Jarrett named to the seat, Harris testified. However, Schofield also delivered word that Balanoff wanted to meet with Blagojevich as soon as possible.
In the end, there was never any deal between Blagojevich and Obama. Instead, FBI agents moved in and arrested Blagojevich, and he ended up naming former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the Senate.
Blagojevich, 53, has pleaded not guilty to scheming to sell or trade the appointment to Obama’s seat. He has also pleaded not guilty to plotting to launch a racketeering scheme using the powers of the governor’s office. If convicted, he could face up to $6 million in fines and a sentence of 415 years in prison, although he is certain to get much less under federal guidelines.
His brother, Nashville, Tenn., businessman Robert Blagojevich, 54, has pleaded not guilty to taking part in the alleged scheme to sell the Senate seat and to plotting to illegally pressure a racetrack owner for a $100,000 campaign contribution.
Earlier, Harris testified that he had come up with the idea of a deal in which Blagojevich would appoint Jarrett to the seat and in turn the governor would get a commitment that after leaving office he would get a highly paid position with Change to Win — a labor organization sponsored in large part by the Service Employees International Union.
Balanoff is a prominent leader of the service employees.
The idea was that the service employees wanted to help Obama get his chosen successor into the Senate, and would therefore reward Blagojevich for appointing Jarrett. Harris said his suggestion was to assuage Blagojevich’s “anxiety about life after governor” — what he would do to make a living.
There was discussion between Harris and Blagojevich on the FBI tapes of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the Senate in hopes that her father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who had been holding up some of Blagojevich’s legislative initiatives, would relent and let the legislation through.
Harris said they speculated on whether naming Madigan would “lift the immovable object” — her father.
But Harris also said that Blagojevich thought of the possible Madigan appointment as a way of pressuring Obama to make a deal under which Jarrett would get the Senate seat and Blagojevich would go to the Cabinet.
