White-Collar Crime
Fed Probe of Ex-Ill. Gov. Blagojevich Now Includes State Universities
Posted Jun 18, 2009, 12:16 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Already facing federal charges in a sweeping corruption case, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now being probed as well concerning admissions to three state universities.
The federal admissions investigation—in which Blagojevich has not been accused of doing anything wrong—follows Chicago Tribune news reports that a clout list was compiled for the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign based on lobbying for individual applicants by government officials, the Chicago Tribune says in an article today.
Some individuals on the clout list reportedly were admitted even though U of I officials protested that they didn't meet admission standards applied to other applicants.
Administrators at the U of I, Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University have confirmed that they have received federal subpoenas related to the admission investigation, the Tribune reports today.
'Blagojevich and his co-defendants have been indicted and charged with essentially running the state as a criminal racket, trading favors for campaign cash," the newspaper writes, summing up the charges he is already facing. As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, the former governor, while still in office, is accused of having sought to barter an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacancy created by the election of President Barack Obama, among other allegations.
Blagojevich has repeatedly denied these allegations.
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