Here’s another interesting section of the document filed by federal prosecutors yesterday in the Rod Blagojevich case:
After Barack Obama’s election to the presidency, the Illinois governor was considering
how to leverage his power to appoint Obama’s replacement. Blagojevich seemed to believe that if he picked Valerie Jarrett — a close Obama adviser who now serves in the White House — he could get the White House to name him Secretary of Health and Human Services in exchange, prosecutors allege. And, they say, he talked explicitly about such a “trade.”
At one point, he told an adviser that Jarrett was “holding Health and Human Services and I’m holding a U.S. Senate seat, O.K.?” He continued: “She’s holding hers with two hands, just kinda clinging to, you know, little pieces of it. Me, I’ve got the whole thing wrapped around my arms, mine, O.K.?”
And he added: “I’m willing to trade the thing I got tightly held to her for something she doesn’t hold quite as tightly.”
The White House has said it had no wish to see the Senate seat given to Jarrett.
