Blagojevich Convicted of 17 Corruption Charges

Posted June 27th, 2011 at 4:15 pm (UTC-5)
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A U.S. jury has convicted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich of nearly all charges against him in his corruption retrial.

Blagojevich said he was “stunned” by the verdict, which came Monday after several days of deliberations.

He was found guilty of 17 of 20 counts, including trying to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

His first trial ended last year with jurors deadlocked on all but one of the 24 counts against him. He was convicted in that trial of making false statements to U.S. federal agents.

Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008. The Illinois state Senate later convicted him of abuse of power and voted to remove him from office.

Mr. Obama resigned from his Senate seat shortly after being elected president in 2008. He has said he had no contact with Blagojevich or his office regarding his replacement.