Obama releasing review on Ill. governor contacts
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans today to reveal his staff's conversations with the Illinois governor, who is accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, transition officials said yesterday.
"We have a report," said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. "It's been ready for release for a week. We've held off at the request of the US Attorney's office and that continues to be the case, though we expect to be able to release the report shortly."
Obama had promised this week to release the review he ordered of contacts between his aides and Governor Rod Blagojevich's office about appointing Obama's Senate successor. The president-elect is on vacation in Hawaii, but his office will go ahead with the release today, transition officials said.
Obama has said his internal review will show that his staff had no "inappropriate" discussions with the governor or his staff about the seat.
Incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel contacted Blagojevich's office about the appointment, according to a source close to the governor who requested anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak on the matter.
Blagojevich believed Emanuel was advocating Obama's friend, Valerie Jarrett, for the Senate seat so that Emanuel would not have to compete with her for Obama's attention in the White House, the source said.
It was not known whether Emanuel, a Chicago-area congressman, spoke to Blagojevich, his chief of staff, or both, or why the governor believed Emanuel was pushing Jarrett for the job, the source said.
It's also not known whether any of those discussions are included in tapes investigators began making of Blagojevich's conversations in October. A federal complaint charging the governor with seeking cash and favors for Obama's vacant Senate seat doesn't cite conversations with Emanuel or others on the transition staff.
An official familiar with Obama's internal review said the president-elect's team wrote its report without having access to transcripts of the FBI's taped conversations. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the review publicly.
Since Blagojevich's arrest on Dec. 9, Obama has made few public remarks about the federal claims that the governor wanted something in return to fill the Senate seat.
Aides say Obama has no plans to make a public statement while he is in Hawaii. The president-elect up to now has been withholding the report in deference to prosecutors who are interviewing witnesses in the Illinois public corruption case.
US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago said when announcing the charges that Obama was not implicated in the case, and sources have said Emanuel is not a target of prosecutors. Emanuel has declined to comment on his recent interaction with Blagojevich and his staff.
Emanuel succeeded Blagojevich in his House seat in 2002, when Blagojevich became governor. Emanuel also was an informal campaign adviser to the governor and shares a mutual friend with Blagojevich who has become a key player in the criminal investigation.
In addition to the charges, Blagojevich also is accused of exchanging campaign contributions for state contracts and appointments, and trying to bully Chicago Tribune owners to fire editorial writers before he would commit state help in selling Wrigley Field, owned by the 