The judge overseeing the Rod Blagojevich case says he will not overturn the one guilty verdict against the former Illinois Governor. The jury convicted Blagojevich for lying to FBI investigators when he told them in 2005 that he didn’t track who gave him political contributions.
Defense attorneys asked judge James Zagel to nullify the one conviction, saying it’s the result of prosecutorial misconduct. Zagel denied that request. In his written opinion, he says Blagojevich’s motion is “founded in substantial part on the well-known principle that if a lawyer cannot attack the law or the facts in a criminal prosecution, the only recourse is to attack the prosecutor.”
The jury convicted Blagojevich on count 24 but couldn’t agree on any of the 23 other counts against him . The governor will face those charges again in his retrial scheduled for April 20, 2011.