By dropping all charges against Rod Blagojevich’s brother on Thursday, the federal government removed what had become an obstacle to their primary mission: convicting the impeached Illinois governor in a retrial now set for early next year.
Jurors who deadlocked last week on all but one of 24 charges in the first trial described the case against Robert Blagojevich as by far the weaker of the two. And they said the former Army officer presented an earnest, sympathetic figure when he insisted on the witness stand that he and his brother did nothing wrong.
