A Chicago judge refused Wednesday to nullify Rod Blagojevich’s lone conviction at his first corruption trial, flatly rejecting the ousted governor’s claims of trial errors and prosecutorial misconduct.

In a short, two-page opinion, U.S. District Judge James Zagel said defense arguments for quashing the guilty verdict for lying to the FBI relied on a “well-known principle that if a lawyer cannot attack the law or facts … the only recourse is to attack the prosecutor.”