Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers want to delay his trial five months. Scheculed to begin in June, that would push his trial’s start date to November, just in time for Thanksgiving.
Personally, I was looking forward to a summer with Rod. Rod TV. The Summer of Blagojevich.
You name it.
Federal prosecutors said today they oppose a bid by lawyers for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to delay his corruption trial until November.
Blagojevich’s lawyers last week asked to postpone the trial from June 3 because the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to limit or throw out the “honest services” fraud law. They also cited a voluminous amount of evidence turned over by prosecutors in recent days.
In their filing Monday, prosecutors contended that neither argument by the defense is persuasive, “particularly in light of the strong public interest in resolving this case as expeditiously as possible.”
Blagojevich’s repeated public statements against the case have heightened that interest, the government contended.
“The charges in this case allege that the defendant engaged in a longstanding and pervasive abuse of his power as the governor of the state of Illinois,” the prosecution said. “The defendant has repeatedly and publicly challenged the legitimacy of the charges against him. As a result, the public has a strong interest in the expeditious resolution of the charges.”
Prosecutors argued that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the “honest services” law, the underlying evidence against the former governor would remain the same at trial.
And so it goes.
I’m betting this request will be denied. The trial is on for June 3.
Unless I’m wrong.
Above is my favorite picture of Rod, BTW. Thanks to ENEWSPF for that.