Prosecutors at Rod Blagojevich's corruption retrial Thursday kept hammering at the most tantalizing allegation against the former Illinois governor by playing wiretap recordings of a foul-mouthed Blagojevich allegedly trying to trade or sell President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat.
An emphasis in the early stages of the retrial on the charge that Blagojevich tried to parlay his power to name a replacement to Obama's seat into campaign cash or a top job is a departure from the government's tactics at the first trial last year. Then, prosecutors delved into the Senate seat accusations only after weeks of testimony on less sensational allegations.
The recordings were played over courtroom speakers as Blagojevich's chief of staff during the latter years of his governorship sat on the witness stand. Most of the secretly recorded conversations were between John Harris and his boss in November 2008, in the weeks after Obama won the presidential election.
In several of the excerpts, Blagojevich seems to be increasingly frantic about landing a top-salary job. He had hoped earlier in November to secure a Cabinet post in Obama's administration, but he begins to consider a job in the private sector more realistic.
"It's very important for me to make a lot of money," he tells Harris in a Nov. 12, 2008, phone conversation. "I need the independence. I need the freedom."
He also seems to display concern that legal scrutiny of his administration has hurt his wife, and two younger daughters.
"I've got the scrutiny going on, lawyers to pay for," Blagojevich laments. "How the hell am I gonna send my kid to college. That's the biggest (bleepin') downside that I'm really dealing with. Never again am I ever gonna (bleepin') screw my kids and my family, and put them in a position like this. I gotta fix this."
While it seems to be dawning on Blagojevich that Obama isn't willing to engage in any deal making, he also believes the White House has a dilemma: They don't want to deal with him, he tells Harris, but they also don't want Blagojevich to appoint himself to the Senate seat, move to Washington and bring his associations to Chicago corruption with him.
Blagojevich singles out convicted political fixer Tony Rezko, who had been a fundraiser for both Blagojevich and Obama.
"'The governor's got that problem with Rezko,'" Blagojevich imagines Obama thinking. "But if I'm in the Senate, it's not just mine any more, it's his too."
Blagojevich, 54, faces 20 charges this time — from attempted extortion of a children's hospital executive to conspiracy to commit bribery in a bid to sell or trade the Senate appointment. The initial trial last year ended with a hung jury, with jurors deadlocking on all but one charge — convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.
Jurors at the first trial heard nearly all of the same testimony from Harris, though later in the prosecution's presentation. By turning their attention to the Senate seat allegation first, prosecutors appear to be addressing criticism that in the first trial they delivered an overly complex case in a dry mode that failed to persuade jurors.