U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald named as source of leak.

Ernie Souchak, Editor-in-Chief, Illinois PayToPlay

 

Chicago Tribune reporters John Chase and Jeff Coen, in their recently released book Golden, claim that former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald lied when he said he did not know who was leaking information to the Trib about the Rod Blagojevich investigation being conducted by his office.

 

Chase and Coen state in their book that, "The newspaper also had information about a planned arrest date and that the investigation had spread to whether Blagojevich had corrupted the process of choosing a new senator to replace Barack Obama." 

 

According to Chase and Coen, the decision to arrest Rod Blagojevich on the morning of December 9th 2008 was made one week earlier by Patrick Fitzgerald.

 

Coincidentally, his decision was made at the same time Rod Blagojevich was attending the Governor's Conference in Philadelphia with President-elect Obama.

 

 

At the very least the media should ask these two questions:

 

1) Why would Fitzgerald decide to make an arrest a week before making it?

2) Why would Patrick Fitzgerald leak this information to the Chicago Tribune?

 

"Something rotten in Denmark"

 

There is another question that the media won’t ask. It concerns a matter that is troublesome to those of us interested in hearing the truth from our government and from the members of the Fourth Estate whose mission is to keep government honest.

 

Why would Patrick Fitzgerald's office pretend, along with Rod Blagojevich and his lawyers, that the protective order, entered into Court Records on 4-19-2009, prevented Rod Blagojevich from disclosing what was said in the phone conversations recorded by the feds?

 

Everyone involved in the case U.S.A v. Blagojevich knows that is false. So why spread that false perception? And, why has the media played along with this deception?

 

A) The protective order was an agreed order, meaning the prosecutor and the defense attorneys agreed to the terms. Judge Zagel did not impose it on Blago, it was self-imposed. Here’s the language:

"Upon the agreement of counsel for the government and counsel of record for the defendant, it is hereby ordered as follows:…"

 

B) The order did not restrict Rod Blagojevich from discussing his conversations.

Blagojevich was free to recount his conversations from memory, and he was free to speak openly of them.

 

That the protective order did not restrict him from doing so is clearly evident from entries #9 and #10 of said order. Not only was Blago not restricted, his attorneys agreed to the terms that enable the feds to disseminate whatever information, to whomever, they wish.

 

9. “The restrictions set forth in the Order do not apply to the United States and nothing in this Order limits the government's use and/or dissemination of these materials.”

 

10. “The restrictions set forth in this Order do not apply to documents that are in the public record or public domain. In addition, this Order does not apply to any material that defendant obtains from any sources other than the government.”

 

Why are we being lied to? And why are Rod Blagojevich's lawyers so quiet?

 

The answers to these questions, and more, are coming soon!