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(Blago) Verdict could cast light or shadow on Patrick Fitzgerald (Next move FBI Director?)
Chicago Tribune ^ | August 7, 2010 | Stacy St. Clair

Posted on 08/08/2010 11:13:01 AM PDT by maggief

EXCERPT

That feeling is heightened by speculation that Fitzgerald, the longest-serving U.S. attorney in Chicago history, may have stayed in his post largely to shepherd the Blagojevich case. And no matter what the jury decides, the trial's end is almost certain to rekindle interest in the top prosecutor's possible next move, a popular parlor game in local legal and political circles.

Many have wondered in recent years whether Fitzgerald's Chicago tenure was winding down and if he would seek a higher post within the Justice Department or forge a career in private practice. Shortly after President Obama took office, there had been speculation in Chicago and Washington that Fitzgerald, 49, would be tapped to oversee the FBI when Director Robert Mueller's term ends in September 2011.

Many believe the FBI would be a better fit for Fitzgerald — a career prosecutor who was once famously described by a friend as "Eliot Ness with a Harvard degree" — than a high-paying job at big law firm.

(Excerpt) Read more at articles.chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: blago; blagojevich; bloago; chicagoway; corruption; edburke; fbi; fbidirector; fitzgerald; patrickfitzgerald; rezko
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1 posted on 08/08/2010 11:13:05 AM PDT by maggief
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To: hoosiermama; STARWISE; penelopesire; onyx; Liz

Mmm ... mmm ... mmmm.

(Might explain pulling the plug early on the wiretaps.)


2 posted on 08/08/2010 11:15:11 AM PDT by maggief
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To: TigersEye; SunkenCiv; Nachum

Ping.


3 posted on 08/08/2010 11:15:38 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March (Want stimulus? Look to Harding, JFK, and Reagan. Tax cuts work. FAnnie/FReddie hurt.)
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To: maggief

Remember the agent that was not allowed to retire, (even though he had reached retirement age) may have triggered bringing this case to trial early.


4 posted on 08/08/2010 11:15:49 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: maggief

I’m sure his future is bright.

Does anyone doubt that his sole mission in the Blago trial was to protect the King and his Chicago retainers?


5 posted on 08/08/2010 11:16:22 AM PDT by sinanju
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To: sarasota; BillyBoy; chicagolady; Dr. Sivana; Graybeard58; Impy; BlackElk; PhilCollins; TitansAFC; ..

*IL Politics Ping*

Hmm...


6 posted on 08/08/2010 11:19:09 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: hoosiermama

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/2467698,CST-NWS-fbiagent06.article

The FBI agent who ran wiretaps on Blagojevich
(Pete) Cullen retired last week as most senior agent in U.S.

EXCERPT

For more than two months preceding the arrest, Cullen spent every night coordinating more than 100 agents who, in shifts, monitored at least nine different phone lines belonging to Blagojevich and those in his inner circle.

By FBI rules, Cullen shouldn’t have even been there. He reached the FBI’s mandatory retirement age of 57 in 2006.

But again and again, Chicago’s FBI chief Robert Grant had something else in mind for the longtime agent and supervisor.

In the spring of 2008, Grant got special permission to extend Cullen’s tenure and appointed him acting assistant special agent in charge of public corruption.


7 posted on 08/08/2010 11:20:28 AM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

I wonder how long it will take the Judge to order a mistrial?

9 days?

I wonder if the Jury is afraid to reach a verdict?


8 posted on 08/08/2010 11:21:05 AM PDT by Marty62 (marty60)
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To: maggief
Big rewards await those who cover up Zer0’s involvement with selling political appointments.
9 posted on 08/08/2010 11:21:58 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (Sarah and the Conservatives will rock your world.)
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To: Marty62

http://inform.com/united-states/nononsense-blagojevich-judge-actor-novelist-607637a

The 68-year-old (Judge James B. Zagel) is a Chicago native who graduated from the University of Chicago and got his law degree from Harvard. He became a prosecutor in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and later chief of the criminal division of the Illinois attorney general’s office.

In that post, he appointed a budding young lawyer, Jayne Carr, as his top aide. She later became Jayne Carr Thompson, wife of former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson.

Gov. Thompson picked Zagel to head the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement in his administration and eventually recommended him to President Ronald Reagan for a judgeship. He was appointed to the District Court bench in 1987.

//

(no link)

Senate OKs James Zagel as U.S. judge
Chicago Sun-Times - Wednesday, April 22, 1987
Author: Michael Briggs
WASHINGTON The Senate yesterday confirmed President Reagan’s nomination of James B. Zagel , the Illinois State Police Department director, to be a federal judge in Chicago.

Without debate, the Senate approved Zagel ‘s appointment to the bench of the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois.

Zagel , 46, has headed the state law enforcement agency since 1980. Prior to that he was Revenue Department director in Gov. Thompson ‘s Cabinet.

When Zagel is sworn in as a judge, Thompson is expected to nominate Jeremy D. Margolis, now inspector general, to the top State Police post.

Groomed as an understudy to Zagel , Margolis has been a troubleshooter for Thompson since the governor created the inspector general job in part as a political foil to what turned out to be a short-circuited 1986 gubernatorial challenge by Illinois Attorney General Neil F. Hartigan.

//

http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-is-illinois-so-corrupt.html

Friday, December 12, 2008
Why is Illinois So Corrupt?
Watch the videos on this site:

http://www.crimefilenews.com/2008/12/chicago-corruption-fighter-and-author.html

Robert Cooley is a former mafia lawyer who worked with corrupt Illinois officials and judges. He turned state’s witness and he explains how the Chicago “Machine” still run by Alderman Ed Burke who “picks” the judges and controls the Chicago City Finance Committee and his wife corrupt Illinois Supreme Court Justice Ann Burke still are up to their ears in corrupt politics as usual. He talks how this cabal of corruption:

1- controls the media,
2-pays off the U S Attorney (former and probably still pays off his middle men, hired during this super corrupt era, who hide stuff from present US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald so the only people prosecuted are fall guys like Blagojevic so as to take the heat off the real top dog crooks like:
A- Jim Thompson (former Gov X 16 years, Director of CIA oversight committee under 1st
President Bush and member of 911 Commission under W)
B-Madigans (Speaker of the House Michael and his daughter Attorney General Lisa, who
lauder all the bribery money kicked back from State, County and City contracts through
their political fund “friends of Madigan”),
C-the Burkes, and
D-the Daleys(Richard - Chicago Mayor and partner of John Burge [the torturer to get
murder confessions] while he was state’s attorney, John - Cook Co. Commissioner who
controlled Co. Board President John Stroger Sr and his Son Todd who replaced him, and
William former Commerce Secr. under Cliniton and now wants to be Gov of IL and
therefore needs to discredit Blagojevic and Lisa Madigan).

A summary of the “system” running Illinois in my view is as follows:

Illinois for too long has been under the control of the:
1- Kingdom of former Gov. Jim (Prince John) Thompson and
2-his Lords, Chicago Mayor Richard M. and Cook Co. Commissioner John Daley (sons of former Mayor Richard J.), County Board Pres. John Stroger Jr. (son of former County Board Pres. John Stroger),
3-House Speaker Michael and his daughter Atty Gen. Lisa Madigan,
4-Alderman Ed (buddy of Fast Ed[dy] now convict Vrydoliak - both of them were leaders against African American Mayor Washington in the “cousel wars” 20 years ago) and IL. Supreme Court Justice Ann Burke,
5-former Sheriff (of Nottingham) Sheahan, and
6-State’s Attorney Richard (Gisbourne) Divine, as well as
7-other Lords such as former Sen. President Emil Jones and now his son Emil Jones Jr.

(snip)


10 posted on 08/08/2010 11:30:11 AM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief; All

There is a reason why people in Illinois like Edgar..


11 posted on 08/08/2010 11:32:49 AM PDT by KevinDavis (President Obama: The Crybaby in Chief...)
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To: maggief

No matter what else he does in life, the legacy of Patrick Fitzgerald will be that he successfully prosecuted a guy I had never heard of before (Scooter Libby) for lying about a crime that was not committed. With a track record like that , Mr. Fitgerald will be a candidate for the poster child position on what went wrong with the American government.


12 posted on 08/08/2010 11:32:58 AM PDT by Bernard (One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Three if by Government)
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To: maggief

Reads like a dangerous place to reach the “wrong” verdict.

I wonder what is going on.
Reads like the plot line in the movie “The Juror”


13 posted on 08/08/2010 11:35:47 AM PDT by Marty62 (marty60)
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To: maggief

Somewhere Fitz is quoted that he is going to out do Operation Greylord...Is he setting up a judge to indict?

He’s got people wired all over Chicago....ANd it’s truly a “who’s on first” situation....Only this time it’s “Who bribed first?”

Operation Greylord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Greylord was an investigation conducted jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County, Illinois (the Chicago region).
The operation took place in the 1980s. Ninety-two people were indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, ten deputy sheriffs, eight policemen, eight court officials, and a member of the Illinois Legislature


14 posted on 08/08/2010 11:43:16 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: sinanju

I am sure that is his mission. Makes perfect sense.


15 posted on 08/08/2010 11:46:03 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (m)
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To: Marty62; maggief

Illinois: “Land of Lincoln” AKA “Land of Linked-CONS”

Operation Greylord

List of names,charges,sentences

http://www.angelfire.com/sc/Centner/Greylord.html
(This link has been removed...but Maggie can find anything.)


16 posted on 08/08/2010 11:47:23 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: hoosiermama

Maybe da Mayor?

Nah, he ain’t corrupt...


17 posted on 08/08/2010 11:47:49 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: maggief

I don’t have any feeelings on Blago, but Fritz IMHO is a POS.


18 posted on 08/08/2010 11:50:16 AM PDT by umgud (Obama is a failed experiment.)
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To: bigbob

From:
http://nalert.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-democrats-and-chicago-mob.html

Most of America thinks Mayor Daley runs Chicago.Those on the inside know that’s not the case.The man who runs Chicago from behind the scenes,since the early 1990’s, is Alderman Ed Burke,Chairman of Chicago’s Finance Committee.Burke went from being an errand boy for Alderman Roti to the most powerful elected figure in the state of Illinois.In a corrupt state like Illinois,the guy with the most money in his campaign fund is the man at the top.In Illinois,it’s not Chicago’s Mayor Daley or Governor Blagojevich but Alderman Burke.


From:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/588442,watchdog04.stnghttp:/

...The much-conflicted alderman says he meant to sit out the vote. He’d even sent a letter to the Chicago Board of Ethics in August 2003 saying he would abstain from any Council votes on Rezko’s plan to put as many as 5,000 homes and stores on a 62-acre site along the Chicago River at Roosevelt Road.
But then Rezko’s project came before the City Council on March 31, 2004, and Burke cast his vote — in favor.
“An error occurred,” the alderman said in a written response to questions, “and Rule 14 was not invoked.”
That would be the Council rule under which aldermen are supposed to abstain from a vote when they have a conflict of interest.
Of course, it’s up to the alderman who has a conflict to invoke the rule.
Burke’s legal work for Rezko’s Rezmar Corp. is referenced in records on the 62-acre site Rezko wanted to develop with $140 million in city subsidies. The project fizzled, and Rezmar sold the land...


###

October 21, 2006
BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter

With the Daley administration pointing the finger at Ald. Edward M. Burke for the extraordinary rate of injury claims filed by patronage workers, Burke fired back Friday, saying his staff has “done the best that it can” to prevent abuse and fraud.

“There is no excuse for anyone who is trying to abuse the system,” said Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, which processes and pays all workers compensation claims filed by city employees.

“I have confidence that the staff of the Committee on Finance has done the best that it can in an admittedly very difficult system,” he said. “If somebody has a better way to do this, then I welcome that information.”

Burke’s comments came amid a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that has found:

• • One in five patronage workers named on a secret clout list kept by Mayor Daley’s then-patronage director filed workers compensation claims, an injury rate far greater than any occupation tracked by the federal Labor Department. Those claims have cost taxpayers more than $38 million.

• • Half of those patronage workers filed at least two injury claims, with a few filing a dozen or more.

• • An estimated 91 workers have been cleared to return to work but are sitting at home, collecting disability checks — sometimes more than $40,000 a year — waiting for the city to find them a less physically demanding job. Many have political connections


GOT a DOZEN or so more , if you are interested.


19 posted on 08/08/2010 11:56:18 AM PDT by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
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To: maggief

There is nothing good about the actions of Fitz......


20 posted on 08/08/2010 11:56:46 AM PDT by Carley (For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.)
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