Jun 1, 2009 2:56 pm US/Central
Blagojevich Trial Could Start Early Next Year
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich attends a press conference for "I"m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!" at the Langham Hotel on April 24, 2009, in Pasadena, Calif.
Charley Gallay/Getty Images
Ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich could go on trial as early as next spring on charges of scheming to sell or trade President Obama's former Senate seat.
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told attorneys he wants the trial to get under way between April and June 2010 and would prefer it closer to April.
Zagel also said he is thinking about "public anonymity for the jury at least until the trial is over."
"I've been getting lots of advice as to how I should rule and what I should do and I would not want members of the jury to be influenced by anything like that," he said.
Blagojevich is charged with scheming to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat that became vacant as a result of President Obama's election and use the political muscle of the governor's office to squeeze people and businesses for campaign donations.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty.
Zagel said he was announcing a time frame for the start of the trial because he wanted to put the attorneys on notice and get them to start planning their time.
"I think it was important for everybody to know there is some sort of deadline beyond which we will not go, absent some extraordinary circumstances," he said.
He also said he believed there might be enough money left in the Friends of Rod Blagojevich campaign fund to pay the defense lawyers, thus eliminating any need to dip into public funds to finance the impeached governor's trial defense.
He stopped short of saying that was definite. The amount in the fund is about $2.3 million with perhaps $40,000 or $50,000 in bills pending.
The Blagojevich scandal continues to dog former state attorney general Roland Burris, whom Blagojevich appointed to the seat shortly before lawmakers kicked him out of office. Court documents in the corruption case have included
a wiretapped phone conversation between Burris and Blagojevich's brother, Robert, in which the two men discussed the Senate seat and campaign donations.
Blagojevich was not on hand for Monday's hearing. His wife Patti was to make her debut Monday night on the NBC show "I'm a celebrity ... Get me out of here!" It is a reality TV show set in the Costa Rican jungle.
Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky told reporters he hadn't discussed the show with the former governor. But defense attorney Samuel E. Adam said he believed Mrs. Blagojevich was doing what she had to do to get money for her family.
"That woman is doing what every woman in American should do and that is stand by her husband and her family," Adam told reporters after the hearing.
Adam, half of a father-son duo on the Blagojevich defense team, is best known for his shouting, whispering, fist-pounding closing argument at R&B singer R. Kelly's child pornography trial. Kelly was acquitted of all charges.
As for the time frame imposed by Zagel for getting the trial under way, Sorosky said he didn't know if it would work.
But Adam said: "If that's what the judge orders, I'll be ready."
"Everything I've ever heard about Judge Zagel is that he's the best there is, and if he says that's the way we're going to do it, that's the way we're going to do it," Adam said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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