Barack Obama questioned by FBI agents over Blagojevich Illinois senate seat scandal

Barack Obama questioned by FBI agents over Blagojevich Illinois senate seat scandal

www.telegraph.co.uk

Mr Obama has broken new ground by becoming the first US leader to face questioning by federal agents between election day and inauguration.

"Here the guy hasn't even gotten his tuxedo for the ball yet and already there's a prosecutor who wants to talk him," Robert Bennett, one of Washington's top lawyers, told The New York Times. "It's the era that we live in."

Mr Obama was interviewed last Thursday at his Chicago transition office by two assistant United States attorneys and two FBI agents. He was accompanied by his personal lawyer Robert Bauer and an associate.

The president-elect willingly agreed to the interview and no objections were raised to any of the questions, his campaign staff said. He is not a target of the corruption investigation that threatens to engulf some of Chicago's most prominent politicians.

But the interviews underlined the dangers of the Blagojevich scandal dogging the early months or years of Mr Obama's presidency, just as Bill Clinton, who was interviewed by investigators at least 10 times, was distracted by the Whitewater land deal inquiry.

It came as Ed Genson, Mr Blagojevich's lawyer, asked the Illinois House of Representatives panel deliberating on whether to impeach the governor to subpoena Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama's chief of staff, Mr Obama's close friend Valerie Jarrett and Representative Jesse Jackson Jnr, an Obama ally.

Mr Emanuel spoke to Mr Blagojevich once or twice and his chief of staff John Harris, also facing corruption charges, at least four times about the vacant Senate seat, which the governor has the sole authority to fill.

Mrs Jarrett, due to be a White House adviser to Mr Obama, was initially named by Mr Emanuel as the president-elect's preferred candidate.

Transcripts of wiretaps indicate that Mr Blagojevich believed Mr Jackson was willing to pay up to a million dollars to become a senator.

All three have also been interviewed by federal investigators. Patrick Fitzgerald, leading the Blagojevich investigation and who quizzed Mr Bush for 70 minutes about the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, did not interview Mr Obama.

Thus far, however, Mr Obama has not been tainted by the Blagojevich scandal, the major distraction for his staff during an unusually smooth transition in which his cabinet and senior advisers have been named in record time.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released on Christmas Eve found that an impressive 82 per cent of Americans approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition, three points from early December. Just 15 per cent said they disapproved.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh how scandalicious. I always find it amusing to watch what politicians have to do to climb the greasy pole.

The first test in selecting a leader should be to ask the candidate if they want to a leader. If they say yes, then they should be de-selected. Those that make it past the interview stage should have a civil servant assigned to them whose singular role be to whisper in the ear of the said candidate, "You are mortal, your leadership is in trust, the office does not make the man, the man makes the office....etc."

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 023131p://pm3142 by masonwatcher]

Interesting, I thought the FBI had already spoken to him and cleared him of any wrong doing. Seems the FBI may be talking to Obama to target other people. Even if Obama hands are clean, I agree that it is very scandalous nonetheless.

"Here the guy hasn't even gotten his tuxedo for the ball yet and already there's a prosecutor who wants to talk him," Robert Bennett, one of Washington's top lawyers, told The New York Times. "It's the era that we live in.

This guy took the words right out of my mouth basically. 100% agreement, Barack Obama is already looking crooked and he isn't even president yet. Any Barack supporters at ATS who are wondering if they've been fed a bunch of lies by this charismatic young leader?

Barack reminds me a lot of Tony Blair, he has charisma and the speeches. Lets see about his escapology and deflection skills. Mr Blair has been credited as being like a greased pig when under criticism.

Obama's not the brightest bulb on the tree, but he is savvy (corrupt?) enough to put a "buffer" between himself and Blago. Raum the Time Bomb is the buffer in this instance.

Change you can believe in. Funny, I have no problem believing this is happening already.



[edit on 27-12-2008 by jsobecky]

It was my understanding (according to CNN) that all of this was on tape. Therefore, they either have incriminating evidence on Obama, or not. We, the American people, have a right to know if our President Elect is guilty of a felony or not. If he is, then he needs to be indicted now. If not, then we need to be told, so we can move on.
That's one of the major problems with this country. The PEOPLE, the VOTERS, don't know what's going on. Is it gong to take a 10,000,000 person march on Washington to get the message across>