The Constitution guarantees Rod Blagojevich the right to a speedy trial, but on Monday his lawyers complained it was getting way too speedy.
Blagojevich’s lawyers sought to delay the federal corruption trial for at least a week to prepare witnesses for a defense case that they had believed they wouldn’t be presenting until late August at the earliest.
Estimates of a sprawling trial that would last well into the fall have evaporated as the government has streamlined its case.
“At all times since the early stages of pretrial litigation in this case, the government asserted to the defense and the court that the government’s case would last approximately three to four months,” the defense filing said. “The government now indicates it will rest its case after just six weeks.”
Before the trial began early last month, prosecutors had estimated their case against Blagojevich would take at least two months to present. By the end of June, however, they gave Blagojevich’s lawyers a heads up that things were moving at a brisk pace and they expected to rest the government’s case by the end of this week.
Late last week, the timeline was refined further to set Tuesday as the estimated resting date. U.S. District Judge James Zagel told Blagojevich’s lawyers to prepare to launch their side of the case by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.
That, defense lawyers contend, is just not enough time. In their motion, they complained that their case would be significantly weakened without a delay because they plan to call a list of witnesses that includes “prominent public officials including national officeholders, and other individuals with extraordinary scheduling issues.”
Testimony by some of those witnesses could require special consideration from U.S. marshals and the U.S. Secret Service, the lawyers said. That group could include witnesses such as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Valerie Jarrett, a top assistant to President Barack Obama.
Whether Zagel relents on granting a delay remains in question, but the Blagojevich defense appeared to be taking matters into its own hands at times Monday, as a cross-examination of former Deputy Gov. Robert Greenlee took on the feel of a filibuster. Zagel eventually forced Blagojevich lawyer Aaron Goldstein to stop asking repetitive questions of Greenlee by threatening to cut off the cross-examination altogether.
As a rule of thumb in criminal trials, direct examination of a witness takes a lot longer than cross-examination.
But Goldstein didn’t appear to get that memo, literally parsing over the meaning of individual words uttered by Greenlee. It was the legal equivalent of sending the catcher out to chat with his pitcher to give the bullpen more time to get ready.
“You speak English? English is your first language?” Goldstein asked Greenlee, who assured the lawyer that it was.
At another point, Goldstein asked Greenlee: “Do you know what a question mark is?”
“It’s a character used in the English language to indicate a change in tonation,” Greenlee replied.
The delaying tactic was clearly getting under the skin of Zagel, who chided the lawyer for asking questions that were “very repetitive” and “a waste of time.”
The defense expects to call Emanuel, Jarrett, Reid and perhaps others to testify about their experience dealing with Blagojevich in fall 2008. That was when the then-governor allegedly bartered with the incoming Obama administration over a possible Jarrett appointment to Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat in exchange for a job for Blagojevich in Obama’s Cabinet or as an ambassador.
Also Monday, Blagojevich’s lawyers made it clear they intend to defend the former governor by asserting that he was acting within the law because that’s what his legal counsel had advised him. Greenlee is one of those advisers with a law degree, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar set out to show that Greenlee wasn’t equipped to advise the governor on criminal law and didn’t try to render legal advice to Blagojevich.
“I’m a corporate lawyer,” Greenlee said of his background, adding that his job at the governor’s office dealt with policy, not legal questions.
After jurors were dismissed for the day, Zagel warned Blagojevich’s lawyers that it would be a tough sell to mount a defense based on advice of counsel. A conversation over drinks where a lawyer tells a defendant, “I don’t think they have anything on you, Rocky,” will not cut it, Zagel said. “That’s not advice of counsel.”
jcoen@tribune.com
bsecter@tribune.com
