Calls 'mysteriously missing' from evidence in Blagojevich case, defense says

Defense attorneys want to know why two phone calls that took place 'on or around' Dec. 8, 2008, the day before the governor was arrested, are missing because the calls would corroborate the governor's 'innocent intent.'

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(PR NewsChannel) / February 08, 2011 / CHICAGO / Attorneys for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich today raised questions about two phone calls made on or before the day of the governor's arrest that are "mysteriously missing from evidence."

Attorneys for Blagojevich say the phone calls which were not provided to the defense "support Governor Blagojevich’s innocent intent and would corroborate his innocence."

They say they discovered the phone calls were missing while conducting their own forensic review of the evidence.

The 34-page motion filed today stops short of accusing prosecutors of misconduct for not disclosing the phone calls as required by federal law.

Blagojevich attorneys say they have a right to know the contents of these two phone calls.

If the calls can't be produced, they want a hearing to determine why the evidence is missing and why the defense had to discover it, according to the court filing.

Defense attorneys say the phone calls are pivotal not only because of when they took place--around the time former Illinois governor was arrested by the FBI--but because they clearly would provide additional proof that the governor never plotted to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by then President-elect Barack Obama to Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. or anyone else.

The legal filing is consistent with what Gov. Blagojevich has said publicly in well over a hundred national media interviews.

That public strategy began after Blagojevich says prosecutors smeared him in a "super-sensational" news conference and then released carefully selected taped conversations that were intended to lead the public to believe he was guilty when in fact he is not.

Just one week after prosecutors released portions of the wiretapped evidence, they sought a Protective Order that restricted the governor and his legal team from playing any additional tapes publicly and quoting from or generally talking about any of the evidence in public.

Now, for the first time, some of those never-before-publicly-heard wiretap evidence are coming into play.

However, the public still can’t see them because defense attorneys say they were forced to redact, black out, large parts of the documents to comply with the Protective Order.

They make it abundantly clear that Blagojevich wants the calls released to the public and they formally asked the judge to lift the Protective Order so they are no longer secret.

"No good cause exists to maintain protections against disclosure of discovery based on confidentiality or any other reason. Without good cause to maintain the Order, this Court should modify the Order to make pertinent transcripts cited by the defense public," the court papers filed today say.

If prosecutors don't or can't produce the contents of the calls as requested, Blagojevich requests an evidentiary hearing "to ascertain the contents of the missing evidence" and to discover why those calls were not disclosed.

RELATED SITES:
www.governorrod.com

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SOURCE: The Publicity Agency

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