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CHICAGO TRIBUNE | EXTRA | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2008
BLAGOJEVICH ARRESTED
coln roll over in his grave.”
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn called on Blago-
jevich to step aside, at least tempo-
rarily, or resign because the gover-
nor is “seriously impeded from car-
rying out his oath of office.”
“I think he knows what he needs
to do for the people,” said Quinn, a
Democrat.
Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, who had
been viewed as a likely 2010 chal-
lenger if Blagojevich sought a third
term, said the governor should im-
mediately step down. Madigan, the
daughter of longtime Blagojevich
nemesis House Speaker Michael
Madigan, also said she was moving
forward on legal issues if the gover-
nor did not resign.
Despite facing myriad federal in-
vestigations throughout his five-
year tenure, Blagojevich has main-
tained he committed no wrong-
doing. On Monday, Blagojevich said
any discussions he has had were “al-
ways lawful.”
The stunning, early morning ar-
rest followed a series of Tribune sto-
ries revealing federal investigators
had compiled secret recordings of
the governor with the cooperation
of a longtime confidant. In recent
days, the focus of federal investiga-
tors expanded beyond a probe of al-
legations of wrongdoing involving
state jobs, contracts and appoint-
ments in exchange for campaign
dollars to the possibility that the
Senate succession process had be-
come tainted by pay-to-play politics.
Blagojevich and Harris were ar-
rested simultaneously at
their
homes about 6:15 a.m., according to
the FBI. They were transported to
FBI headquarters in Chicago. Blago-
jevich appeared before U.S. Magis-
trate Judge Nan Nolan early in the
afternoon and heard the charges
read against him before being re-
leased on his own recognizance.
Spurring federal investigators to
act was Blagojevich’s pending ap-
pointment of a Senate successor to
Obama, whose resignation took ef-
fect Nov. 16. Blagojevich had said he
expected to name a new senator
around the end of the year.
Prosecutors said they had numer-
ous recorded conversations of Bla-
gojev