Friends, We have all heard about Rod Blagojevich, his arrest and impeachment process in progress. I put forth the matter in brief, at the same time requesting you to find parallels between this case and so many other accusations being made in India and the kind of response we give to these cases. Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois' governor who was arrested on Federal charges in early December 2008 is now to face the Impeachment process in the Illinois House of Representatives. The decision to impeach him was voted by almost as unilateral decision of 114-1 votes. Incidentally this is the first time such an action has been taken against a governor of Illinois. The corruption charges against Blogojevich include conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. The Justice Department complaint alleges that the governor conspired to commit several "pay-to-play" schemes, including attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated United States Senate seat to the highest bidder. Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature which allows for formal charges to be brought against a civil officer of government for conduct committed in office. Generally, the lower house of the legislature impeaches the official and the upper house conducts the trial. Obviously it is not necessary that impeachment result in final removal or punishment of the concerned official. At the federal level, Impeachment is governed by Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution. The grounds stated to begin this process are Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors." At the state level; there are similar provisions for impeachment, slightly varying from state to state. Till now, impeachment proceedings have been initiated at the Federal level only 62 times since 1789, this being used in the rarest situations. Of these actual impeachments took place only of 17 federal officers. This includes the two US Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton (with a third Richard Nixon resigning in the near certainty of impeachment process getting into action) both of who were acquitted. Only 7 of these have actually been convicted. Interestingly one, former judge Alcee Hastings, was elected as a member of the House of Representatives after being removed from office. A total of eleven U.S. state governors have faced an impeachment trial. William Woods Holden (North Carolina) in 1871 was the first to be removed followed by David Butler (Nebraska). The last in this list was Evan Mecham (Arizona) who was removed in 1988. So, Blagojevich case comes another twenty years after the Macham one. Why was Blagojevich arrested? Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested by FBI agents for wide-ranging criminal acts including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions. Actually the FBI investigators had compiled secret recordings of the governor with the cooperation of a longtime confidant. The federal accusations against Mr. Blagojevich go beyond the Senate question into what the authorities here described as a "political corruption crime spree." The governor is accused of racing to solicit millions of dollars in donations from people with state business before an ethics law bars such behavior in January, and threatening to rescind state money this fall from businesses, including a Chicago hospital for children, whose executives refused to give him money. He is also accused of putting pressure on The Chicago Tribune to fire members of its editorial board who had criticized him or lose the governor's help on the possible sale of Wrigley Field, which is owned by the Tribune Company and is home to the Chicago Cubs. The two counts of charges are summed up as being in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341,1343, and 1346, 1349 (Count One) and violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 666(a)(1)(B) and 2. As per the FBI version, when in early October 2008, the government obtained information that Blagojevich was accelerating his corrupt fund raising activities to accumulate as much money as possible before the implementation of ethics legislation on January 1, 2009, as part of the investigation it obtained court approval to intercept oral communications in certain locations in the offices of Friends of Blagojevich as also to intercept wire communications on his home phone. The permission was granted for two periods of 30 days each. In recorded conversations with advisers, the governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, seemed alternately boastful, flip and spiteful about the Senate choice. Incidentally, Lincoln, the most respected of the US Presidents also belonged to Illinois as is the to-be President Obama. The State has been plagued by various investigations and corruption charges for years, most recent being eventual conviction of Gov. George Ryan, a Republican whom Mr. Blagojevich succeeded. They also became two Illinois governors to have been in prison at the same time. So, in the case of Blagojevich, the action could take place rather fast, despite the fact that he was and still is the Governor of a State (and that too a big, rich and politically important one). Do we have anything to learn from this?
Amitabh Thakur, SP (Intll), Faizabad # 94155-34526
