'Obama seat sale' governor scorns impeachment calls

Defiant Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, said today that if what he had done as Illinois governor was an impeachable offence, he was living on the “wrong planet” and in the “wrong place”.

Speaking to a WLS-TV reporter outside a Chicago law office, the governor said he was hired to fight for the people of Illinois and that was what he had been doing.

The interview marked the first time Mr Blagojevich, 52, had spoken to the media since giving a defiant three-minute speech last Friday in which he said he would fight the forces against him until he took his last breath.

The Democrat is accused of scheming to sell US president-elect Mr Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Government prosecutors built their case against the governor using wiretapped conversations riddled with profanity.

“Look, if I’d have known people were listening, I probably wouldn’t have said some of the things you say in private conversations,” Mr Blagojevich said today.

“But I think there’s probably tens of millions of people across America that talk like that from time to time.”

Mr Blagojevich has ignored continued calls to step down. He spoke today as the committee of legislators investigating whether he should be impeached prepared to reconvene in the state capital of Springfield on Monday.

The governor’s lawyer, Ed Genson, said he would provide the committee with a list of 25 of Mr Blagojevich’s accomplishments that would render the idea of impeachment ridiculous, according to WLS-TV. Mr Blagojevich said the wiretap recordings showed him working for the people of the state.

“Even in this process, without saying too much, that was all about trying to end up with the right decision that could do the most things for the people of Illinois, and when the full truth is told, you will see precisely that,” Mr Blagojevich said.

“If somehow that’s impeachable, then I’m on the wrong planet and I’m living in the wrong place.”

The committee has yet to rule on a request from Mr Genson to subpoena incoming Obama chief of staff Rep Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and more than a dozen others, including Rep Jesse Jackson Jr. Mr Genson said their testimony would also prove Mr Blagojevich’s

innocence.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said earlier this week that lawmakers’ interviews of current or former members of Mr Blagojevich’s staff might jeopardise his criminal investigation.