Patrick Fitzgerald and Robert Grant

“ But as you stand here and outline a case that's been described as shocking, disgusting, sickening, appalling, the worst ever; and Rob talking about if it's Illinois's not the most corrupt, it's in serious contention; we now have a governor facing these charges, and perhaps many, many more, who still has the power to appoint a U.S. senator. And I'm wondering, even though it's a statutory provision, would the people of Illinois be well served by a quick special session of the legislature to try to change the law? You're quick to make value judgments about good and bad behavior. ”

“ And I understand we're not – you know, there's politics and there's crime. And sometimes, I think, when people get in trouble they try and blur those lines. I think when you start having quid pro quos, where there's a deal – "If you give me this and I will give you that in exchange for awards" – if you tell someone – if you – if you read the complaint carefully, one of the conversations describes how the job that Governor Blagojevich wanted for himself at a union couldn't be just given to him by the union because they already have people doing that job. ”

“ But I don't want people, when I answer those questions, to imply that someone is in trouble.
What I'm trying to do is explain caution about a complaint. When someone says something that's on tape, largely they're stuck with it. But when someone says something on tape about someone else, you usually want to do more investigation to verify what it is that happened. ”

“ But the – if the charges set forth in the complaint are true, it is an appalling, appalling statement about what's been happening in Illinois government with Governor Blagojevich and his chief of staff. And what it tells us is that it's great to have the FBI and their colleagues working on this, but we need people in the public to stand up and say, "Enough." And if people start hearing things that they feel is untoward or improper, it – we need them to come forward.
We're not going to end corruption in Illinois by arrests and indictments alone. ”

“ But the most cynical behavior in all this, the most appalling is the fact that Governor Blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama.
The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.
The governor's own words describing this Senate seat, quote: "It's a bleeping valuable thing, thing. You just don't give it away for nothing," close quote. ”

“ There is a lot of investigation that still needs to be done, and there are critical interviews that we have to do and cooperation we need to get from different people. So it wasn't about, as Pat said, tying this in a bow, waiting till spring, letting things be done that damaged the state of Illinois, damaged the – damaged the United States Senate, hurt people; it was about what is good for the investigation, what is good to find out the truth about what is going on, because this goes beyond just the governor. It goes to other people who are involved in these schemes. ”

“ I've – you know, I've tried to speak at times about telling people that, you know, you look to the FBI to do a lot. You look to law enforcement to do a lot. But the real effort to clean up corruption's going to start with the citizenry, people who are going to speak up and say something when it's wrong. ”

“ We hope you'll bear that in mind and not cast aspersions on people for being named or being discussed, or if you learn they're being interviewed.
The other part is that I think this is a moment of truth for Illinois. In all seriousness, we have times when people decry corruption; and yet, here we have a situation where there appeared to be wide-ranging schemes where people were seeking to make people pay contributions to get contracts or appointments or do other stuff. ”

“ We will – you're not on a clock. We want to dispel any misperceptions. So don't feel like you got to – anyone's got to yell to get a question in.
Okay.
[REPORTER] : [inaudible] – you said twice that we shouldn't cast aspersions on people who we think we recognize within the complaint. Does that mean that all of these people are beyond blame in any way? I mean, some of the things in the complaint point a very kind of a tacky finger at some people, their willingness to play. And if pay to play is illegal, isn't the willingness to play also culpable, even if you didn't charge today? ”

“ So when you say you want a job for four years, you want a salary of about $300,000 and you basically want to work on behalf of a union and cost them $1.2 million to basically add no value because people are already doing your job and part of that is an exchange where in exchange if you don't get that job no one's getting appointed Senate seat, we're comfortable in the law that someone who schemes to do that has broken the law. ”

“ They will continue to work very, very hard. But what we really need is cooperation from people who are not in law enforcement, the people outside who heard or saw things or were approached in ways that felt uncomfortable. If they felt uncomfortable and they think, "This is not how you run a government," they ought to come forward and give us that information. It's very, very important that we get that information, so we can make the right decisions about where to proceed from here. ”

“ Mr. Fitzgerald, was this done today in an effort to head off the appointment of someone to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat? Was it so imminent that that's why you had to step in?
FITZGERALD: I would say that we decided that this required unusual measures, and there were a lot of things going on that were imminent.
There's a bill sitting on the desk that we think a person who was supporting that bill has been squeezed to give $100,000. And to let that bill be signed to me would be very, very troubling. ”

“ So we have the governors, in these modern times, the only one who's looking for more layoffs.
You take that, what's going on, add it to the fact that we have a Senate seat that seemed to be as recently as days ago auctioned off to the – you know, to the highest bidder for campaign contributions. And Governor Blagojevich's own words on the tape with a bug that's set forth in the complaint talked about selling this like a sports agent. ”

“ Look, we never give – you know, and I think anyone who's from Chicago knows – you've heard it a thousand times – we don't give clean bills of health. And what I've always been afraid of is if you say, you know, "Did Carlos or me – are we in trouble?" ”

“ I can tell you we've been conducting interviews during the day, and we're already quite heartened to hear that there are a number of people out there who were appalled by this conduct who are willing to come forward and talk to us. So we encourage people to talk to us. We encourage people to work with us, to let us get to the bottom of what has happened here. ”

“ The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI do not have an opinion on what actions the legislature ought take. The only opinion we'll express is that we hope that people with relevant information will come forward and cooperate with us.
[REPORTER] : Well, do you trust the governor of Illinois to make this appointment –
[REPORTER] : (Off mike) –
FITZGERALD: Yes. Okay.
[REPORTER] : You're a citizen of the state of Illinois.
FITZGERALD: Okay –
[REPORTER] : You're – you live here in Chicago. Do you trust this governor to make a good choice for the Senate, which is so important? ”

“ As far as how much – whether or not there are people acting like a tough guy or not, I mean, I don't want to pre-try the case. But if you lean on someone and lead them to believe their bill is not getting signed unless they give you the money, that is what acting like a tough guy is, it's a crime. And we can sort through at any trial as to, you know, what was said, what was followed through, but it is a crime to conspire to shake someone down.
(Cross talk.) Yes, sir?
[REPORTER] : Is Governor Blagojevich –
FITZGERALD: Right – sir. Sir. ”