Dear Mr. President-elect:
The developing criminal investigation of your friends and allies in Illinois demands you take action. There are three specific things that you can do to dispel what could otherwise be a cloud hanging over your first days in office.
Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich has been a longtime friend and political ally of yours. You worked to support each others’ campaigns for statewide office in Illinois, and have worked together on numerous policy issues. Now the FBI has arrested Governor Blagojevich for trying to sell the Senate seat that you vacated to assume the presidency.
First, you must explain why your statement on the Illinois scandal contradicts the statements of your closest adviser. You made an on-camera statement the day Mr. Blagojevich was arrested, saying that you had not even spoken to the governor about possible replacements for you. However, your close adviser for several years now, David Axelrod, who is now slated to become your senior adviser in the White House, speaking of you, said, “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names.”
The transcripts of the phone calls intercepted by the FBI show that Mr. Blagojevich knew, by name, a specific person you wanted to fill your seat. This could support Mr. Axelrod’s public statement that you discussed this subject with the governor. And now questions are also swirling as to whether your incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was party to any such conversations.
Either your statement or your top adviser’s statement is untrue. Which is it?
Second, you must support a criminal prosecution of whoever Senate Candidate #5 is. Those same FBI transcripts repeatedly show one specific person being considered for your Senate seat was offering bribes to the governor. That person must be investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, just as Mr. Blagojevich is being prosecuted.
Third, you must publicly promise you will not remove Patrick Fitzgerald from office while he is prosecuting these criminals. Mr. Fitzgerald in the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and is leading this investigation. You and your Democratic colleagues in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House had nothing but praise for Mr. Fitzgerald when he prosecuted a prominent Republican a couple years ago. Having lavished such kind words on Mr. Fitzgerald, you cannot fire him from his post until this matter is resolved. To do so would enmesh you in this scandal.
You were quick to call for stringent law enforcement and full disclosure when Republicans had their scandals. Now some of your closest Democratic friends and allies are embroiled in a criminal conspiracy involving multiple felonies, and you must hold them to the same standard. And you can start by telling us what you know about this situation, and when you knew it.
Sincerely,
J. Kenneth Blackwel
