Prosecutors begin cross-examining Blagojevich

CHICAGO — The prosecution wasted no time grilling Rod Blagojevich as they began cross examining the impeached Illinois governor Thursday at his corruption retrial, setting a highly combative tone from the very first question.

“Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?” asked governor attorney Reid Schar, raising his voice as hurled his first question at Blagojevich.

After the judge overruled a flurry for objections from the defense lawyers, Blagojevich answered, “Yes.”

Within minutes, tempers on all sides flared, Blagojevich’s lawyers repeatedly objecting and Schar angrily appealing for the judge to direct Blagojevich to answer the question.

His voice rising further, Schar — dropping his normal reserve — continued to hurl one question after another Blagojevich, who tried to hold his ground and also sounded angry in response.

“Is it true that, as a politician, you not infrequently lied to the public?” Schar asked.

“I try to be as truthful as possible,” Blagojevich responded firmly.

Prosecutors likely relished the chance to confront Blagojevich. At his first trial last year — in which he was convicted of lying to the FBI — the ousted governor never took the stand and prosecutors never had a chance to cross-examine him.

During five days of questions from his own attorney, Blagojevich denied all the allegations against him, including that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat.

Earlier Thursday, Blagojevich insisted he wasn’t asking for a Cabinet post in exchange for naming a preferred candidate to President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat, but said he kept broaching the subject because the quick dismissal of the idea of him in such a prestigious job was embarrassing.

He told jurors during his fifth day on the stand at his corruption retrial that his talk about the seat and the possibility of getting a Cabinet post was just “manic brainstorming.” But he said he understood right away it was pure fantasy and couldn’t happen.

Blagojevich told jurors he was embarrassed by the reaction of Obama ally and union leader Tom Balanoff to his idea of asking the then president-elect to make him secretary of Health and Human Services.

“I think it goes to one of my insecurities,” Blagojevich said, explaining why went on talking about a possible Cabinet post for days more. “I was embarrassed by the flat-out dismissal. You sure look bad in front of your staff.”

Balanoff testified earlier for the government that he felt Blagojevich was linking the Cabinet post to the Senate seat, and he said he told Blagojevich it wasn’t going to happen.

Blagojevich kept hammering on the theme that his comments about the seat were mostly wild talk. “Any decision on the Senate seat had to be legal, obviously,” Blagojevich said at one point, raising his voice and accentuating each word as he spoke. Prosecutors objected and Judge James Zagel stopped him before he could go on.

Zagel warned Blagojevich earlier not to say he thought his actions were legal at the time, saying that was not relevant to whether he committed a crime.

Blagojevich, 54, denies all wrongdoing. He faces 20 criminal counts, including attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud. In his first trial last year, a hung jury agreed on just one count — convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.