Blagojevich Busted

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Friday that he was not guilty, that he is not stepping down as governor and that he will "fight until I take my last breath."

Blagojevich addressed the media from the Thompson Center.

He said he will not step down or resign from office and intends to address the allegations against him in court. 

He said he expects to be vindicated.

"I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, that I intend to stay on the job, and I will fight this thing every step of the way. I will fight, I will fight, I will fight until I take my last breath," Blagojevich said. "I have done nothing wrong."

He cast himself as a victim in the case, and said he will not let a "political lynch mob" force him from office.

Blagojevich did not take questions after the news conference, but one of his attorneys, Sam Adam Jr., issued a spirited defense of the governor when he took questions afterward. 

Adam said the governor is still able and qualified to lead.

"We have had, in this state, for the last six years, a governor that has one agenda on his mind, and that is health care, and making sure seniors get health care, and he's going to continue to promote that," Adam said.

When asked about Blagojevich's low poll numbers and presumption of guilt among the public, Blagojevich's attorney Sheldon Sorosky said Harry Truman had low poll numbers as president but is now revered.

Adam and Sorosky dodged many questions about the allegations against Blagojevich, but they said none of it offered clear evidence that Blagojevich had done anything wrong.

"The governor's wife said something derogatory about the Cubs, but probably half the city who are Sox fans have said the same thing," Sorosky said.

"If the people of Illinois will suffer, he will step aside... if he cannot govern, he will do that," Adam said. But he said Blagojevich "can (continue governing) and he will."

Prosecutors say FBI wiretaps caught Blagojevich scheming to deal President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for campaign cash or a plum job. He is also accused of attempting to withhold funding to the facilitate the Tribune Company sale of Wrigley Field if editorial writers for the Tribune paper weren't fired, and attempting to shake down Children's Memorial Hospital.

After Blagojevich's news conference, state Rep. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) called for a special election for Obama's senate seat, and said Blagojevich's charges had already hurt the state. 

"This week, we lost $20 million in a bond deal because of these charges," Murphy said.

At a separate news conference, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said the Blagojevich was not heeding the state constitution by remaining in office while his duties are "impeded."

Quinn said the state constitution says, "Whenever the governor has determined that he shall be seriously impeded" in his ability to serve, he is expected to step aside, and Blagojevich should "look at that portion of our constitution and step aside."

Quinn said there were even provisions in place that would allow the governor to withdraw from office temporarily and later take steps to return. He also said Blagojevich had every right to defend himself in court, but should step aside while doing so.

Unimpressed by Blagojevich's vow to fight, Illinois Republicans said Friday the scandal-plagued governor must resign or be impeached. Illinois Republican Party chairman Andy McKenna said anything less than a resignation is "unacceptable."

"For the good of the people, Rod Blagojevich should resign from office immediately and spare voters any more heartache than he's already caused," McKenna said in a statement.

One of Blagojevich's attorneys said he may eventually resign if his legal problems hurt the people of Illinois.

That's already happening, responded House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego. He said the Democratic governor can't effectively address the state's massive budget problems and backlog of unpaid bills.

"Because of the budget hole we have right now, people are not going to get paid. You might be a substance-abuse provider, you might be a physician, you might be a hospital, you're not getting paid," Cross said.

CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said Blagojevich's attorneys' goal was to attack the whole criminal justice process against the governor and make it appear he is getting a raw deal, rather than challenging individual pieces of evidence.

Also, in a document dated Thursday, the state House special investigative committee handling the impeachment hearings asked U.S. Attoreny Patrick Fitzgerald with copies of all the surveillance recordings against Blagojevich, the names of witnesses only identified in the criminal complaint by letters or numbers, and interviews with other witnesses. A response has not yet been issued by Fitzgerald's office.

The document indicated that the impeachment committee plans to accuse Blagojevich not of the charges in the criminal complaint, but of abuse of power charges. Among them are entering the Family Care Program into law with no legislative approval, illegal spending on flu vaccines, hiring of consultants and contractors, and giving $1 million to the Loop Lab School that later vanished.

Also Thursday, lllinois lawmakers continued the early stages of impeachment proceedings against Blagojevich as a war of words erupted between the governor's lawyer and the state's top legal officer, Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Genson argued Thursday that federal investigators illegally monitored his client's conversations.

Genson told the impeachment committee that it shouldn't consider any material from the wiretaps, saying the evidence was "illegally obtained." Earlier on MSNBC, Genson said the governor has maintained his innocence. "He's telling me that he's not guilty, he's telling me that he wants to fight."

Madigan, who lost a bid this week to have the state Supreme Court consider removing Blagojevich, said she's disappointed in the attitude of Genson, a renowned defense attorney. She zeroed in on Genson's statement earlier this week, saying that he's taking the potentially expensive Blagojevich case partly for "fun."

"You know what? This isn't fun," Madigan shot back in an interview with Flannery. "This isn't fun for the people of the state of Illinois. It's not fun to see your governor arrested and taken away in handcuffs. … Unfortunately, Mr. Genson seems to have an attitude that is not appropriate for the circumstances."

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine, Political Editor Mike Flannery, Legal Analyst Irv Miller and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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