Impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today called on U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to allow the release of all audio tapes in the government's case against him.
In a statement outside his attorney's office this afternoon, Blagojevich told reporters that federal prosecutors lied about him and his wife in a recently released case proffer, and that they are resisting the release of the tapes because they undermine the government's case that he was about to commit a public-corruption "crime spree."
"They will prove my innocence," Blagojevich said less than 15 minutes ago. "They're covering up that big lie."
Blagojevich's trial on corruption charges is slated to begin in June. Much of the prosecution's strategy relies on witnesses inside his inner circle and audio tapes from his wiretapped phones.
The former governor has repeatedly said he is innocent, and the statement he delivered just a few minutes ago was billed by his publicist as "the strongest public statement to date concerning the charges he is facing."
Yet Blagojevich offered no new information on his defense, and simply rekindled an old call for the tapes to be released. Perhaps the newest aspect of the statement was his vociferous defense of Patti, his wife, who comes off in the proffer as a make-work freeloader who benefited from her husband's corrupt connections.
Blagojevich has defended her before, but he directly addressed allegations against her in the court papers released last week.
In what Blagojevich called a "proffer of lies," prosecutors wrote that he unsuccessfully tried to get his wife a job in state government, for which she was allegedly unqualified, and later a brokerage house that does business with the state. The accusations were "hitting below the belt," Blagojevich said.
"They are cowards and they are liars," he said of prosecutors. "Patti is my wife. ... All the money that she earned she worked for and she paid taxes on."
He ended his statement with a challenge to Fitzgerald, the highest-ranking government attorney in Chicago, to appear in court when his prosecution team tries to stop the release of the tapes.
"I'll be in court tomorrow," Blagojevich said. "I hope you're man enough to be there too."