Blago’s Lawyer Offers ‘Rather Dim’ Portrait of Ex-Illinois Gov
The lawyer for Rod Blagojevich told jurors on Tuesday that his client was “absolutely fooled” by his advisers.
Lawyer Sam Adam Jr. told jurors in opening statements that the former Illinois governor has horrible judgment but he “ain’t corrupt,” according to stories in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune’s Blagojevich on Trial blog.
According to the Times, Adam painted a portrait of Blagojevich that was “by design, rather dim: the former governor of Illinois, the lawyer said, is an insecure man, a serial telephone dialer (of friends who often stop answering), and a C student who surrounded himself with people he should not have trusted and is now nearly broke (because he never stole a thing).”
Adam said it wasn’t true that Blagojevich considered taking campaign contributions from supporters of Jesse Jackson Jr. in exchange from appointing him to a vacant Senate seat, according to the Times account. Blagojevich wanted to imply he was considering Jackson to irk Democratic leaders, but in reality he intended to appoint state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to help smooth relations with her father, the speaker of the Illinois House, Adam said.
