Looks like Jesse Jackson has been cooperating with Pat Fitzgerald’s probe of Rod Blagojevich for longer than we knew.
The Associated Press reports:
A spokesman for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. tells The Associated Press the congressman has been talking to federal investigators about his dealings with Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY’-uh-vich) since summertime.
Spokesman Rick Bryant wouldn’t give details of those discussions Tuesday morning.
But a report from WLS-TV in Chicago cites unidentified sources as saying Jackson has told investigators Blagojevich wouldn’t appoint Jackson’s wife as state lottery director because Jackson wouldn’t donate $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund.
Jackson has admitted to being “Senate Candidate 5” identified in the charging document against the Illinois governor. Blagojevich says in a recorded conversation that an “emissary” from Candidate 5 proposed a “pay to play” deal for Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.
Late update: In fact, Jackson’s cooperation may have gone on for much longer than that. CNN reports:
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has served as an informant to the U.S. attorney’s office in Illinois, two sources close to Jackson tell CNN.
Jackson has served as an informant for more than a decade and has relayed information relating to embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich since 2006, the sources said.
