Politics

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A former top aide to ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich has pleaded guilty to taking part in a plan to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former Senate seat in exchange for financial benefits for the governor or his wife.

Harris, 47, of Chicago, was Blagojevich's chief of staff from late 2005 until Dec. 6 of last year, after he was arrested along with Blagojevich.

Although his name appeared throughout the 75-page indictment handed down in April, he faces just one count of wire fraud.

He pleaded guilty Wednesday to that count of wire fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating corruption in Illinois government. 

Harris's defense attorney, Terry Ekl, said he expects Blagojevich to go to trial on racketeering conspiracy charges and that his client would take the witness stand to outline what he knows about corruption in the administration.

"I have never met a person who is going to be a better witness than John Harris is going to be," Ekl told reporters after his client pleaded guilty.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Randall Samborn, had no comment.

Harris will likely receive a jail sentence of no more than 35 months or 3 years as set forth in the deal. A judge could reduce the sentence further, given Harris' clean criminal record.

Harris admitted that he had several conversations last November in which he and Blagojevich discussed installing various candidates in Obama's seat as part of a deal to get a high paying job for Blagojevich.

The specific charge against Harris involves phone discussions he had with Washington D.C. advisors regarding landing financial benefits for Blagojevich in exchange for appointing senior adviser Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Obama became president.

In his plea agreement, Harris outlined a scheme under which Blagojevich would get a job as head of a union-sponsored organization, Change to Win, in exchange for giving Jarrett the Senate seat. Officials of the Service Employees International Union were to broker the scheme had it gone forward. It did not.

Jarrett, now a White House adviser, was not mentioned by name in the plea agreement but has been identified in the past as the Senate Candidate B who was to get the seat under the plan. Jarrett eventually took her name out of contention for the seat and has been accused of no wrongdoing in the case.

SEIU officials have also not been accused of any wrongdoing.

After Blagojevich believed that Jarrett was no longer a candidate, he discussed two other possible candidates for the Senate seat, the plea agreement said. In one case, he allegedly told Harris that he wanted to receive the candidate's entire campaign fund in exchange for the Senate appointment.

In the other, there was discussion through intermediaries that the candidate would raise $1.5 million in campaign funds for Blagojevich in order to get the seat.

While Harris pleaded guilty to breaking the law, the plea agreement said that the chief of staff repeatedly warned the governor against doing so.

"Defendant told Blagojevich that the appointment could either reward an ally or make a new ally but that Blagojevich could not trade the Senate seat for himself," the plea agreement said.

In addition to the Change to Win job, Blagojevich also expressed interest in getting an ambassadorship for himself or being named secretary of health and human services in the Obama administration in exchange for the Senate seat, according to the plea agreement.

According to the document, Harris agreed under orders from Blagojevich to carry the message to Chicago Tribune executives that they could expect no state help in selling the Chicago Cubs unless they fired editorial writers who were calling for the governor's impeachment.

But Harris never delivered the threat, according to the document.

Ekl has said Harris had done nothing to financially benefit himself. His cooperation has been crucial to giving prosecutors a roadmap to Blagojevich's final days in office.

Blagojevich's longtime pal and former chief of staff, Lon Monk, who was pivotal in the ex-governor's fund-raising efforts, is also expected to enter a guilty plea later this month.

CBS 2's Ed Marshall, the Associated Press and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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