Judge says 'honest services' charges stick against Blagojevich

Judge James Zagel ruled against a defense motion to dismiss the "honest services" charges against Rod Blagojevich following last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision scaling back the federal statute.

Although the high-court decision appeared to provide relief to former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling and media mogul Conrad Black in appeals of their criminal cases, it affirmed that the law was meant "at least" to apply to bribes and kickbacks, the main charges against the former Illinois governor in his corruption trial.

"It is unlikely to do anything for this particular defendant," Zagel said.

Zagel did grant that there was "one possible effect of Skilling on this case," in the charge that Blagojevich plotted to compel the Chicago Tribune to fire members of its editorial board who were critical of him in exchange for his cooperation on a sweetheart deal involving taxes on Wrigley Field in the Tribune Co.'s sale of the Chicago Cubs.

Yet even there, Zagel ruled, it could be read as "the governor trying to bribe the Tribune rather than the bribe going the other way."

The Tribune charges have been the weakest part of the government's case so far. Although former Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris testified that they conspired to present the ultimatum to the Tribune, he also admitted that he never actually delivered it to Trib emissaries because he knew it was wrong.

For now, however, the judge ruled the defense motion to dismiss the "honest services" charges was "invalid on its face."

The "honest services" statute refers to the public's "inalienable right to the honest services" of officials. It has been key to the corruption convictions of former Illinois governors from George Ryan back to Otto Kerner.