Prosecutors Waste No Time Attacking Blago
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 3, 2011 2:38PM
Prosecutors in the Rod Blagojevich retrial have been waiting 2-1/2 years for their chance to question Former Governor Sound Bite on the witness stand. Yesterday afternoon they tried to score the early knockout. Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar came in guns hot: "Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?"
Blagojevich allowed that was indeed, the case, referring to the one count of which he was found guilty in his first trial. Schar followed. “Is it fair to say, within hours of being convicted you went and lied again?”
From there, it soon became evident that Blagojevich was no longer being questioned by his defense team of Sheldon Sorosky and Aaron Goldstein. Blagojevich would tried to filibuster his answers to Schar's questions, at one point even objecting to a Schar query from the witness stand. Schar repeated his questions, demanding a "yes" or "no" answer from Blagojevich and rarely affording him the opportunity to stretch out his answers.
Schar continued to try to cast Blagojevich as a liar. His other early questions focused on the November 2008 press conference Blagojevich held where he said he had no interest in appointing himself to the Senate seat vacated by President Obama. Blago testified that he was playing politics with that press conference. "It’s the quarterback faking the handoff and throwing long. It’s part of the business."
He also testified that, if he did take the Senate seat, he would have used his opportunity as Senator to personally travel to Afghanistan and hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Crain's reported that the normally serious-minded, nose-to-the-grindstone Schar seemed to channel his inner Sam Adam Jr. in his questioning of Blagojevich. The jury apparently took notice and paid rapt attention to the drama that played out in the courtroom. Schar pointed at Blagojevich with each successive question. Blagojevich tried to regain the comfort zone he had the previous five days with sorosky and Goldstein. The defense team fired a flurry of objections to Judge James Zagel, which were consistently overruled by Zagel.
Schar's withering questioning and Blagojevich's response to it led Tribune columnist John Kass to declare that Blago's goose was cooked.