Thursday, February 11, 2010

Blagojevich wants all phone tapes played for jury

When his corruption trial begins in June, Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois,
wants jurors to be allowed to hear all of the audio recordings — some 500 hours’ worth — that federal authorities secretly made of his telephone conversations.

That prospect, political analysts say, was likely to cause queasiness for Illinois politicians, some of whom are thought to be heard on those audio recordings and might have hoped their comments would never become public.

Any association with Blagojevich could cast a candidate as part of the “corrupt Democratic machine,” said Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of political science at UIS.

Redfield's comments on the subject were featured in a February 11, 2010, article in the New York Times.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100211-NYTimes-Blagotapes.pdf