CHICAGO — Ousted Gov. Rod Blago jevich pleaded not guilty Wednesday to revised federal corruption charges and challenged prosecutors to allow jurors to hear all of the FBI’s recordings of his telephone conversations.
Sounding unusually combative after the brief hearing, Blagojevich told reporters he would not ask Judge James Zagel to prevent jurors from hearing FBI wiretaps in which prosecutors say he schemed to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
“Let me cut right to the chase: Today I’m laying down the gauntlet,” Blago jevich said. “I’m not going to hide behind my lawyers, nor will I hide behind technicalities in the law to try to block these tapes from being heard.”
But he challenged the government to play all of the roughly 500 hours of recordings.
“I’m not just going to talk the talk, I’m going to walk the walk,” he said. “Play the tapes; play all the tapes.”
His attorneys, in court papers filed Wednesday, wrote that a full airing of the recordings will establish Blagojevich’s innocence.
The trial is slated to start June 3.
Blagojevich also said he would take the witness stand in his own defense at the trial.
The Associated Press
