Former governor Rod Blagojevich, freshly re-indicted on those pesky corruption charges, is hoping to air those secret tape recordings authorities made while investigating him. Why? Because he believes allowing the jury to hear all of the tapes will put the conversations into a fuller context. With around 500 hours of conversation recorded, wading through it all is a tall task but Blago and his attorneys think it key to proving his innocence, telling the judge he is, "desirous that the recordings be heard in open court by the jury, believing as he does that a full airing of the recordings will establish his innocence of every count in the indictment." Blago has pleaded not guilty to all 24 charges brought against him in the new indictment. After an appearance in court, Blago said, "Play all the tapes, play all the tapes ... Play the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." more ›

This morning, U.S. Judge James Holderman gave the okay to release secret recordings made of phone calls between U.S. Senator Roland Burris and Rob Blagojevich, brother of ex-gov Rod Blagojevich, to a senate ethics committee investigating Burris' shady testimony during Rod's impeachment trial in January. For what it's worth, it seems that attorneys representing both Rob Blagojevich and Sen. Burris are just fine with the tapes being released. Rob's lawyer, Michael Ettinger, said, "If it was up to us, we'd play it to the public," and Timothy Wright, a lawyer for Burris, said, "We think it is what it is. The truth is coming out. We think it helps to vindicate the senator." [Tribune, Sun-Times] more ›