In 2008, federal prosecutors were stymied because Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, refused to plead guilty to corruption charges. (In recent years, in most American jurisdictions, roughly 80 to 95 percent of all criminal defendants plead guilty and waive their rights to trials.)
It has now been revealed that federal prosecutors approached ROBERT Blagojevich, the brother of ROD Blagojevich and asked the brother to convince Rod Blagojevich to plead guilty.
According to Michael Tarm of the Associated Press,
“While charges were eventually dropped against him, Robert Blagojevich, a 59-year-old Tennessee businessman, writes that his refusal to turn on his brother made him “collateral damage” of an overzealous prosecution that cost him his reputation, nearly $1 million in legal bills and a still unrepaired split in the Blagojevich family.”
“Before the brothers’ joint 2010 trial, lead prosecutor Reid Schar proposed that if Robert talked Rod into a guilty plea, charges against the elder brother could be reduced or dismissed, the book says.”
After the first trial ended in a mistrial, the feds dropped the charges against Robert and retried Rod by himself.
