Corruption Timeline

Immediately after college, Blagojevich, insinuated himself into the upper echelon of Chicago’s Democratic machine. His first job was with city alderman Edward Vrdolyak, who escaped charge...

Some contributions to Attorney General Darrell McGraw's 2004 re-election campaign made by attorneys and family members at a Charleston law firm have raised questions about their legality ...

New York's Eliot Spitzer made may have made the practice fashionable, but West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has a lengthy and enduring pattern of hiring outside counsel and ap...

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has changed his story again about what happened before ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed him to the Senate, and state Republican leaders said Saturday they want an...

A federal court Tuesday appointed three defense lawyers for the corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich whose funds are depleted. The Chicago Sun-Times reported U.S. D...

Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), a staunch ally of Mayor Richard Daley, was indicted today on charges he accepted about $40,000 in improvements to his residence as well as meals and tickets t...

Federal court documents unsealed Thursday as Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) was indicted on corruption charges suggest Carothers himself has been cooperating with federal investigators and ...

Indicted Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) should not be asked to step aside as powerful chairman of the City Council’s Police and Fire Committee because, “in America, you’re innocent until pro...

"We can go to trial is we choose to, depending on the evidence, we could attempt to plead guilty. We could do all kinds of things" —Larry Beaumonth, Ike Carothers' attorney

WE DON'T know where to begin with the latest mess that has ensnared Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.). No, "ensnared" isn't the right word. That would imply that he's blameless for his troub...

"This is a troubling situation. Admission to this great university should be based on merit, never on clout. This Commission is charged with investigating claims of such special treatment..." —Governor Pat Quinn

Another lawyer is joining the defense team for ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. U.S. District Judge James Zagel on Friday allowed a fourth lawyer to serve as quarterback for the defense te...

The Senate Ethics Committee probe of Sen. Roland Burris is moving to its next phase, seeking information from Burris himself, after having interviewed Sen. Dick Durbin and Senate Majority...

Federal prosecutors are trying to determine if former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his allies used political muscle to influence student admissions at three state universities. United S...

State of Illinois Admissions Review Commission Meeting Minutes June 16, 2009 Members Present: Abner Mikva (Chair), Ricardo Estrada, Bernard Judge, Doris Lowry, Chuck Scholz, Zaldawyn...

Christopher Kelly, a former adviser and chief fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was sentenced to 37 months in prison today on federal tax fraud charges for concealing his use of...

"Straight from the G. My apologies. Larry (Eppley) has promised to work on jobs (5). What counts?" —University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman to Law School Dean Heidi Hurd

"I asked, 'Why in the world are we admitting this student who is so low?'" —Abel Montoya, former admissions worker at University of Illinois

Staff at Nepal's main international airport are to be issued with trousers without pockets, in an attempt to wipe out rampant bribe-taking. The country's anti-corruption body said ther...

"I should have stood in the door. ... This was a bad moment for me personally." —Richard Herman, Chancellor of University of Illinois

A former chief of staff to Rod R. Blagojevich, the ousted former governor of Illinois, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to wire fraud, describing in a court document how Mr. Blagojevich had po...

The University of Illinois has turned over more than 200 pages of documents to federal prosecutors looking for evidence that ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to influence student admissi...

"I was incensed because we had just been steamrolled by what I felt to be an abuse of an official office. I took it to be the case that there had been a top-down gubernatorial fiat. I was ..." —Heidi Hurd, former dean of University of Illinois Law School

Agenda I. Call to Order and Introductory Remarks II. Public Testimony A. Mary Macmanus Ramsbottom - Assoc. Dean, University of Illinois B. Stephen R. Portch, Ph.D - Chancello...

"I don't know of any time where a previous governor had reached in and gotten so involved in a decision." —Kenneth Schmidt, University of Illinois Trustee

ROCHESTER, Minnesota (CNN) – Former Rep. James Traficant was released from federal prison Wednesday. CNN affiliates KTTC and KAAL report that Traficant — sporting knee socks, shorts an...

Kelly was taken to Oak Forest Hospital at 11:15 p.m. Friday, said Marcel Bright, a spokesman for Stroger hospital in Chicago. He was later transferred to Stroger for further treatment. Ke...

It was June, 2008, when a Naperville businessman met with an influential city alderman to talk about winning lucrative airport concessions contracts. Their discussion was part in code ...

Last night, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich returned to his alma mater, Northwestern University, and to a crowd as skeptical as it was curious to hear how he would defend his legacy ...

From the time he walked through the curtain on "The Late Show with David Letterman" Tuesday, ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich was a walking punch line, drawing big laughs when he maintained he'll...

Several parts are redacted, but you can easily copy and paste the entire motion into a text file and view all the redacted material. Oops on somebody’s part: http://static.cbslocal.com/st...

A federal judge in Chicago has refused to issue a subpoena for President Barack Obama to testify at former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's political corruption trial. U.S. District Jud...

"This has the potential to be very messy for a lot of folks." —Andy Shaw, Executive Director of the Better Government Association

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich criticized prosecutors on Wednesday for trying to bar his lawyers from telling jurors that wiretaps admitted as evidence against him represent onl...

Judge James Zagel is expected to start questioning potential jurors today for the retrial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. More than a hundred potential jurors showed up to f...

It might be called the low-budget sequel. In opening statements for Rod Blagojevich’s retrial on Monday, the defense dropped the showmanship, and the prosecution significantly slimmed ...

Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (Chicago’s new mayor) created a sort of media frenzy when they appeared at the Dirksen federal co...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich testified in his retrial on federal corruption charges Thursday, saying he had waited two and a half years for the opportunity. “I used to be your governor ...

Prosecutors said they will give a lengthy closing argument to rebut the ex-governor's seven days on the witness stand. Before closings and outside of the jury's presence, Judge James Z...

Jurors at the retrial of ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have begun deliberating. Judge James Zagel told lawyers during a hearing on Friday that he was giving jurors copies of jur...

A federal jury found former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty of 17 of the 20 counts he was accused of, including those related to trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's ...

For decades, William Cellini was feared and respected at the highest reaches of state government — advising governors, screening state Cabinet officials, controlling federal appointments ...

Impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to make a statement to the court at his newly scheduled sentencing hearing in December, his attorney said Monday. The attorney’s comments ...

The federal sentencing hearing for convicted influence peddler Antoin "Tony" Rezko — once a friend and personal real estate fairy to President Barack Obama— had just begun in Chicago.

After all his claims of innocence and facing years in prison, Rod Blagojevich let his lawyers make an admission that he has so far avoided — that he is, in fact, guilty of public corrupti...

A contrite former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in federal prison, capping one of the state's worst political scandals and humbling a controversial and defiant ...

Convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich entered a federal prison in Colorado to begin a 14-year sentence for corruption Thursday.