Comments Subscribe to Personal Liberty Digest™ News Feed Subscribe to Personal Liberty Digest™ 

Request for taxpayers to fund Blagojevich defense

December 18, 2008 by  

Who should pay for Blago's defense?As the hearings regarding the impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich continue, the state attorney general has denied a request that state taxpayers fund his defense.

Blagojevich’s attorney, Edward Genson, sent a letter to Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan this week, citing a state law that mandates the attorney general to represent state officials in court, the Associated Press reports.

However, because Madigan had tried to get Blagojevich removed from office she had a conflict of interest and the state should therefore pay for the governor’s lawyer of choice, Genson claimed.

However, Madigan chief of staff Ann Spillane responded in a letter by arguing that the impeachment proceedings are not being held "in court" and therefore the state of Illinois should not have to foot the bill.

She also suggested that because the governor is accused of "corruptly betraying the public trust for personal and financial gain," it did not make sense that taxpayers should pay.

It emerged last week that Blagojevich had been arrested by FBI agents for allegedly trying to sell the senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama.

Today, lawmakers are expected to hear testimony about past investigations of the governor that found evidence of improper contracts, incomplete records and careless use of tax money, according to the AP.
ADNFCR-1961-ID-18938138-ADNFCR

Filed Under: Liberty News, Wealth
Personal Liberty News Desk

Facebook Conversations

Join the Discussion:
View Comments to “Request for taxpayers to fund Blagojevich defense”

Comment Policy: We encourage an open discussion with a wide range of viewpoints, even extreme ones, but we will not tolerate racism, profanity or slanderous comments toward the author(s) or comment participants. Make your case passionately, but civilly. Please don't stoop to name calling. We use filters for spam protection. If your comment does not appear, it is likely because it violates the above policy or contains links or language typical of spam. We reserve the right to remove comments at our discretion.

Is there news related to personal liberty happening in your area? Contact us at newstips@personalliberty.com

  • Eric g

    Maybe Serbs have been targeted becuase they are white christians ,

  • Eric g

    I really dont know why the FBI went after Blagojevich ,for selling Oboma senate seat . The govnor could apoint who ever he wanted too . Natualy he would want to help his friends , people that would help him . I kinda think all politicians in all states work this way . Who ever said the politicians cant spend your hard earned money anyway they want too . I think they can and do .
    Maybe Blagojevich was attackted becuase he is a Serb . The U.S. government has a long history of trying to destroy Serbs . In the 1990s we helped Croatia remove their Serbian population , We also droped bombs on the Serbian population fighting muslims in Bosnia , Then in 1999 we droped more bombs on little Serbia than we dropped on all of Germany , during any 78 day period in ww2 . NATO signed a peace agreement with Serbia that stoped the bombing . But in 2006 we reneged on this agreement and donated Serbia’s Kosovo to Albainia . Yugoslavia was the kingdom of the Serbs , I thought a great country , but it is no more ,thanks to NATO and U.S. policy .
    So if anyone thinks Oboma is wasting your money . Remember Clinton bombed Yugoslavia , Bush bombed Iraq , I dont think much can be more wastefull than a war . Serbs are never let go free even if they are innocent .

  • James Cheshire

    I have to agree on the bailout situation..
    But what really bothers me is when I go into a Wal-Mart Store here in Alabama, I think I’m in an other country..
    There are so many ?? illegal little hispanic people that it’s outragious..To top that off about 90 % of what’s hanging on the racks and on the shelves in Wal-Mart is “Made In China” and the other 10% is divided,5% is made in Mexico or other Latin American Countries and the last 5% is made in USA…
    Look at this scenerio and you will see why there are so many “Unemployed Americans” in America..
    The greedy US companies and graft from”Lobbiest” being taking by politicians that have “OUT SOURCED” our jobs to “Foreign Countries”..
    They bring in more undocumented workers to erode what is left of the jobs that are left here..
    It makes my blood boil to see what they have done to “OUR COUNTRY”
    All Textile Companies,and that includes Cotton Mills,Shirt Factories,Jean Factories,and most other manufactoring companies have been “OUT SOURCED”.
    They are made with cheap labor and sent back to the “Good Old USA” and sold in stores like Wal-Mart and others,the clothes don’t fit well and the craftmanship and quality is always 2nd or 3rd rate………..
    We as well as the US Politicians have sat upon our back sides and let this happen..
    The USA has opened “Her Borders” for all to come in,the “Big Companies and Bank
    CEO’s “greed have broke this country…
    We are a debter’s nation that owes our lively hood to the likes of CHINA and OPEC,
    and it never stops…We are supporting the world’s economy and it’s going to get worse,just sit back and watch the indicators…………. Jim

    Wake Up America before it’s to late if it’s not already….

    • http://PersonalLibertyDigest Chris

      When you say you agree with the bailout, what do you mean? Do you know that most of the bailout money given to the stock market was used for bonus checks and exspensive vacations? Next the auto industry flew to Washington in private jets to get there share. Now Russia is talking about needing a bailout. When are americans going to realize that money is not free, and the "government" does not have anything that "we" do not give him? So when the "government" says he's giving something away, what he really means is "we" the taxpayers are doing the giving at the "governments" command. Open your eyes america. We are broke. We can't afford all this spending. I believe this is an elaborate plan deliberately thought out by our politicians to create a crisis that would require and justify them to likewise create a solution to fix it. Alas, the cashless society will be introduced and it will "appear" as a Godsend and everyone will be required to get the "mark" to make any financial

      transactions. It doesn’t take a whole lot of common sence to figure out that you can’t spend money like we spend money and truelly think your going to prosper or benefit from it. I’ll bet George Busch would rather die a thousand deaths than let someone handle his finances at home the way he handles the finances for the USA. Americans need to stop pretending everythings going to be ok just because they can’t handle or deal with the thoughts of the reprocussions that will follow a complete breaking point in America.

      • James Cheshire

        The statement about “Auto Company Bailout” on my above post I think was misunderstood..
        What I meant was that “I DO NOT SUPPORT ANY TYPE OF BAILOUT AT ALL”..
        I say give them nada,nada,nada,zero.Who bails us out when we mismanage our finances,no one,we have to grin and bare the burden all alone and learn to live within our means..
        We have really litterly gone down the tube in the last twenty years,the politicians have all voted against us and with the lobbiest in Washington,it’s criminal the way they operate..They have completely turned their back’s on their voters..
        Their pocket’s are full while our’s are empty..I think it’s time to have a clean sweep,throw them all out of office,take their lucritive pensions away and place them in the same system as other Gov. Employees..
        Send the bums to jail when they do underhanded deals that goes against the American People and puts money in their pockets or the pockets of their family members..
        We can not go on the way we’ve been,”The American People” will not stand for it..This Great Nation Of Our’s is coming apart at the seams,the thread is rotten and so is it’s leaders………….Jim

  • Ken Roberts

    Why should we pay for his defense we can’t ask the government to pay for our lawyers if we need them and if we have a job we are precluded from a free lawyer. I draw the line at someone that makes over a hundred thousand a year, he can afford his own defense . I had a knowledge of someone having to pay for their own defense that made 125 a week so I am sure this jerk can afford his attorney . what a jerk he is. The trouble with politicians is they think they own the tax money for what ever they want .

    • Intelligent not Stupid

      Thank you — well said.

      I am getting tired of financing wars to enrich the rich and being told I must “bail out” the people who are the main problem in the current financial crisis.

      We need to start taking care of our own people, not killing the citizens of other countries.

      • MONTANALADY

        What about the citizens of other countries who killed 3000 of our citizens. And not only 9/11 but the decades before we have been attacked. You Libs conveniently forget that and whine about other countries.

      • http://PersonalLibertyDigest Chris

        Try to keep your focus in the right direction. This is about Blogoyovich, not americas wars.

blog comments powered by Disqus

All Categories

Bottom