Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the United States Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder in what a federal prosecutor called a "corruption crime spree".
However, a federal judge in Chicago ordered Blagojevich released from jail after the Democrat was hit with federal corruption charges.
He was released on a signature bond that specifies that he'll forfeit $4,500 bond if he does not appear in court. Blagojevich was also ordered to relinquish his passport and his firearm owner's identification card.
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a news conference prosecutors make "no allegations" Obama was aware of any alleged scheming.
Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Company, the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.
New low
"We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it," Fitzgerald said yesterday, calling the corruption charges against Blagojevich "a truly new low".
Blagojevich's arrest was the latest example of corruption in a state with a political history of nepotism and patronage. In Chicago, the state's largest city, the tradition of corruption goes back past the days of celebrated 1920s gang boss Al Capone to the 1890s, when the so-called Gray Wolves of the City Council stuffed their pockets with bribes.
Federal investigators bugged the governor's campaign offices and placed a tap on his home phone. Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant said even seasoned investigators were "stunned" by what they heard on the tapes.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said the governor's office did not have immediate comment on the charges, but issued a statement saying the "allegations do nothing to impact the services, duties or function of the State".
A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorised wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
Otherwise, Blagojevich con-sidered appointing himself. The affidavit said that as late as November 3, he told his deputy governor that if "they're not going to offer me anything of value I might as well take it".
"I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain," Blagojevich allegedly said later that day, according to the affidavit, which also quoted him as saying in a remark punctuated by profanity that the seat was "a valuable thing you just don't give it away for nothing".