Rod Blagojevich Trial to Start in 2010

December 6, 2009

Gov. Rod Blagojevich

If 2009 was a personal and legal roller coaster for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, next year doesn’t promise to be much smoother with his criminal trial looming in the summer.

Blagojevich’s legal team has turned on its head the usual defense strategy in big corruption cases to say or reveal little before trial, letting him embark on media blitzes in part to promote his book. There’s no reason to think that aggressive approach won’t be evident at a trial that could last months.

“The man has said it a thousand times, and that’s why he’s out there. If you’re not guilty, you don’t shy away,” said Sam Adam Jr., one of Blagojevich’s lawyers. “And he’s going to take the stand at his trial, and he’s going to answer his accusers.”

The strategy carries obvious risks: The former governor’s denials could be used against him at trial by prosecutors armed with extensive undercover recordings and the testimony of former Blagojevich insiders.

“That might hurt his ability to testify without being submitted” to an attack on his sincerity on cross-examination by the government, said Dean Polales, a former veteran federal prosecutor.

Blagojevich’s lawyers are likely to counter by trying to show that the former governor acted in good faith in the often rough-and-tumble world of politics and government and didn’t seek to enrich himself.

“I would say they probably would not say this is politics as usual in front of a Chicago jury,” said Polales, now in private practice. “But they will say he acted in good faith and that he was serving legitimate political interests.”