Former Ill. Governor Rod Blagojevich
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and convicted last month by his state's legislature after federal prosecutors charged him with political corruption, is angling to rehire a top Chicago criminal defense attorney for his legal team.
Attorney Michael Ettinger, who is representing Blagojevich's campaign fund chairman and brother Robert Blagojevich, said that the former governor wants to rehire attorney Edward Genson, who quit working on the case last month because he disagreed with a national media blitz strategy. The former governor followed the advice of two other Chicago lawyers, Sam Adam Jr. and Sam Adam Sr., in launching the media tour, including appearances on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The View".
Ettinger said the governor preferred to have Genson lead his legal team and that the father-son Adam duo may not ultimately participate in the case. The former governor was socked with a criminal complaint in December that alleged he sought personal gain from candidates he was considering appointing to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Pres. Barack Obama. The campaign fund and Blagojevich's brother have not been named in the criminal complaint.
"We want to see what Genson is going to do," Ettinger said in an interview. "We're hoping we can get him back."
Genson, of the Chicago-based firm Genson & Gillespie, maintained that he has no plans to rejoin the team, saying that he and some of the other lawyers have "different philosophies." "I'm not going to be involved in the case anymore," he said in an interview.
Ettinger, a criminal defense lawyer with Palos Heights, Ill.-based Ettinger, Besbekos & Schroeder, said he's waiting to see whether Genson and Adam Sr., who have been friends for decades, will patch over their dispute in the next month. Whether or not the Adam duo participates in the case depends on how long the trial is expected to last and how many defendants are involved, Ettinger said. Federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago have until April to file an indictment against the former Democratic governor or seek an extension for such a filing.
"There are too many questions out there to be resolved before we can put a team together," Ettinger said.
Still, Ettinger said the core group has been assembled with Alan Brunell last week joining Sheldon Sorosky of Chicago-based Kaplan & Sorosky in representing the former governor and Chicago solo practitioners James Graham and Judith Dobkin representing the campaign fund. Graham confirmed that he had signed on this week to work for the fund. Dobkin deferred to Ettinger on the question.
Sorosky, who has previously confirmed his work for the governor, and Brunell couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
