As Blagojevich pleaded not guilty today to charges of racketeering and fraud, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Blagojevich’s camp was told last year “that Jackson would raise up to $5 million in campaign cash for the ex-governor if he was appointed†to President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. This amount is significantly more than the $1.5 million mentioned in Blagojevich’s 19-count indictment.
Fundraisers Rajinder Bedi and Raghuveer Nayak also suggested that Indian donors would raise $1 million more if Jackson got the appointment.
Blagojevich was overheard in a secret recording made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation discussing his alleged approach by a Jackson emissary, according to the criminal complaint filed against Blagojevich, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Jackson confirmed last week that he was being investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics, a citizen watchdog group that seeks to hold lawmakers accountable.
Neither Jackson, Bedi, nor Nayak have been charged, and the OCE investigation is only a fact-finding inquiry that will issue a report to the House’s Ethics Committee for further review.
The OCE cannot compel witnesses to submit to
interviews or subpoena documents as evidence. Nevertheless, Jackson said in a statement last week that he is cooperating fully with the preliminary investigation but asserts that he has done nothing wrong.Jackson did not respond to a request for an interview.
Marcia A. Wade is the reporter at BlackEnterprise.com