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Clock Ticking in Blago Case
Produced by Rob Wildeboer on Sunday, March 29, 2009
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(AP/Seth Perlman) |
Federal prosecutors have only a week left to indict former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
When authorities arrested Blagojevich back in December, it was based on a criminal complaint. Prosecutors didn't have the case all tied up in a bow, but U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald rushed to bring charges because he said Blagojevich was in the middle of a crime spree.
FITZGERALD: Sometimes when there's ongoing criminal conduct, and this is a very different case than what we often see, we will expose the criminal conduct and bring charges to let people know we're on to it, and to hopefully, to put a stop to it.
Now, to move forward with case against Blagojevich, federal law requires prosecutors to indict him, to convince a grand jury that they've got enough evidence to pursue the case. The deadline for indicting the former governor is April 7, next Tuesday.
Prosecutors could ask a federal judge for an extension of that deadline but they've already done that once, buying them the April 7 date. While they have until then, an indictment could be returned earlier, perhaps sometime this week.
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