Illinois Guv Charged With Corruption

Feds focus on 'pay-to- play politics' in choice of Obama successor
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2008 9:10 AM CST

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested at his Chicago home today, and taken into federal custody on charges of “pay-to-play politics,” the Tribune reports. Amid questions over whether such practices were involved in the selection of a senator to replace President-elect Obama, a federal probe had been recording the governor with the aid of a confidant.

A rep for Blagojevich said he hadn’t “heard anything” about the arrest, the Tribune notes. Yesterday, the governor said his conversations were “always lawful.”
(More Illinois stories.)

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