Anti-Gaming Governor Busted On Corruption Charges

IL Governor Rod Blagojevich, who you may recall for his high-visibility and expensively futile crusade against videogames, has something besides Grand Stealing Auto to occupy his attention these days: He was recently in remission and slapped with federal subversion charges.

Blagojevich and his chief of faculty were arrested yesterday happening charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire pretender and solicitation of graft, accordant to a CNN report. The charges say that Blagojevich unsuccessful to extort payment in switch over for appointing a U.S. Senate substitution for Chair-elect Barack Obama, including a positioning at either a not-profit operating theatre labor-cognate organization with a "significant salary," a position on corporate boards for his wife, "cash in dormy social movement" campaign funds or a Cabinet operating theatre Ambassadorial post for himself.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, "The breadth of corruption arranged verboten in these charges is stupefying. They allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-take on schemes with the urgency of a salesman get together his period of time sales target; and corruptly utilised his role in an effort to tramp down editorial voices of literary criticism."

Crooked politicians are nix radical, but Blagojevich gets special notice for attempting to impose restrictions connected selling violent videogames to minors, a law which was struck down by a federal royal court in 2005 because IT profaned the First Amendment. Nothing excessively especially atrocious about that, but in response the state government blew almost $1 1000000 unsuccessfully appealing the decision, despite the fact that look-alike laws in other states had been struck Down for precisely the same reasons. Making matters worse, finances to pay for the appeal ultimately had to come from different body politic agencies, including the national health department and state welfare agency, leadership State Government Committee Chairperson Jack Franks to say, "We had a strong suspicion that the Governor was using funds condemned by the General Meeting place equally his own personal piggy savings bank."

Prior thereto, in 2004, Blagojevich had criticized the Newmarket Transit Authority for agreeing to course an ad campaign for Large Theft Auto: San Andreas. The ads were one of these days pulled, although the CTA claimed Blagojevich's efforts weren't in reality responsible for the conclusion, saying that the advertising narrow with Take-Two was nearing the oddment of its endure anyway.

The investigation into alleged wrongdoing by the Illinois Regulator and his office has actually been ongoing since 2003, according to the complaint (available here via the Chicago Tribune, PDF format) which details many exchanges between Blagojevich, his Chief of Staff John Harris and numerous former individuals. In an early November conversation regarding the nomination of a replacement for Obama's Senate seat, Blagojevich aforesaid, "I've got this thing and it's f–king golden and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for f–king nothing. I'm not gonna do information technology." He besides declared that if He wasn't satisfactorily compensated, he would simply take the seat for himself. "Unless I get something factual good for [his first off-choice candidate], shit, I'll fair-and-square send myself, you know what I'm saying."

Unhappily, this point of corruption and felonious activity at high levels of State government is nothing new for Illinois. "We're complete about corrupt politicians here in Illinois," said one solicitous citizen, pointing out that Blagojevich's predecessor as Governor, George Ryan, is currently serving six years and sixer months in prison house resulting from his own conviction on federal corruption charges. Henry M. Robert Deed over, the limited agent in commove of the Chicago office of the FBI, also expressed depress at the situation, saying, "If [Illinois] isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's for sure one Hell of a competitor."

Blagojevich, a phenomenally less-traveled Governor whose approval ratings fresh slipped as low every bit 13 percent, was discharged on bail and returned to work this morning, but umteen of his colleagues, including Lieutenant Governor Glib Quinn and President-elect Obama, have called on him to resign. Unsurprisingly, helium has thus outlying maintained his innocence, saying through his attorney, "He hopes the mass of Illinois have faith in him because he will beryllium vindicated."

Sources: GamePolitics, Chicago Tribune

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/anti-gaming-governor-busted-on-corruption-charges/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/anti-gaming-governor-busted-on-corruption-charges/

Share this post