Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested at his home about 6 a.m. after asking, “Is this a joke?” JOSÉ MORÉ/TRIBUNE FILE
8 PAGES OF COVERAGE
Lt. Gov.: Blagojevic should step aside
By Jeff Coen, Rick Pearson and David Kidwell
TRIBUNE REPORTERS
U.S. Atty. Fitzgerald announces the charges. CHUCK BERMAN/TRIBUNE
Fitzgerald: Conduct ‘would make Lincoln roll over’
An in-depth look at the charges brought against the governor by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald. PAGE 3 PLUS: What’s next for the governor’s seat and what happens with the Senate replacement. PAGE 6
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “political corruption crime spree” that included attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Blagojevich and Harris were named in a federal criminal complaint that alleged a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy aimed at providing financial benefits to the governor, his political fund and to his wife, First Lady Patricia Blagojevich. Blagojevich was taken into federal custody by FBI agents at his North Side home Tuesday morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday. The arrests dealt a tumultuous blow to Illinois government, at once raising questions about the leadership of the
state and the fate of seat—which the gov the power to fill unde The allegations aga provide a sharp cont cratic governor who office promising refo of disgraced, scandal can chief executive G complaint against Bl little more than two was sentenced to 61⁄2 y federal corruption ch Robert Grant, sp charge of the FBI’s characterized Illinoi pantheon of political “If it isn’t the most the United States, it hell of a competitor,” Fitzgerald, whose offi ed Blagojevich’s pred gojevich’s “conduct w
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