Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Interpreting the Obama Team's Press Release.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_14-2008_12_20.shtml#1229386028
As he promised, Barack Obama had his staff prepare a report of
contacts between his staff and the office of Governor Blagojevich. And
it was ready for release in a timely fashion when the U.S. attorney's
office asked that the report's release be delayed for a week.
Dan Pfeiffer, the Communications Director of Obama transition team
released the following statement (via [1]Politico):
"At the direction of the president-elect, a review of Transition
staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been
conducted and completed and is ready for release. That review
affirmed the public statements of the president-elect that he had
no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the
President-elect's staff was not involved in inappropriate
discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of
his successor as U.S. senator.
"Also at the president-elect's direction, Gregory Craig, counsel to
the Transition, has kept the U.S. Attorney's office informed of
this fact-gathering process in order to ensure our full cooperation
with the investigation.
"In the course of those discussions, the U.S. Attorney's office
requested the public release of the Transition review be deferred
until the week of December 22, in order not to impede their
investigation of the governor. The Transition has agreed to this
revised timetable for release."
As before, it's important to read this new release, both for what it
says and what it doesn't say.
The press release says that "the President-elect's staff was not
involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff
over the selection of his successor as U.S. senator."
While this statement seems on a casual reading to be a denial of
contact, it actually implies the opposite: that there were contacts
but they were not "inappropriate." As I've argued before, everything
points to the Obama camp rejecting any corrupt bargains that may have
been offered to them.
It would seem that there are contacts mentioned in the report;
otherwise, there would be nothing to hold back for a week. Would it
have killed them to admit that there were contacts between the Obama
staff and Blagojevioch and his staff (which they couldn't yet
disclose), but these contacts were not inappropriate? It's as if the
Obama camp are responding to a discovery request and they just can't
bring themselves to be fully forthcoming.
As I [2]noted before -- and today's release underscores -- Obama has
not promised to release any information about contacts between his
staff and unofficial emissaries of Blagojevich, including the very
contacts detailed in the wiretaps:
The first contemplated contact is for the SEIU official (identified
by the New York Times as Tom Balanoff) to contact Valerie Jarrett
or another Obama aide. According to the Times, SEIU officials
recently argued that �All the official did . . . was listen to Mr.
Blagojevich and his chief of staff and ferry some messages for
them.� If the Times is correct, then Balanoff did ferry messages
from the Blagojevich camp to the Obama camp, essentially as
requested.
But this contact would not be covered by Obama�s promised
disclosure since it was not �between the transition office and the
governor�s office.� . . .
Nor would the second contact be covered by Obama�s promise to
disclose. That was between �Individual A� and a �President-elect
Advisor,� not �between the transition office and the governor�s
office.�
So the affidavit alleges two times that Blagojevich asks someone to
convey his corrupt offer to the Obama camp. Neither was directly
�between the transition office and the governor�s office,� so
neither would be covered by Obama�s disclosure promise.
If weekend news stories are correct and Rahm Emanuel (quite
appropriately) conveyed a list of candidates that Obama considered
acceptable, then this would underscore just how narrowly Obama defines
"contact."
It would seem highly likely that Obama had input into the list of
candidates (David Axelrod's statement three weeks ago implies that he
did) and that Emanuel conveyed the list at Obama's direction. (If
Emanuel came up with the list all by himself and conveyed it to
Blagojevich without Obama's permission, I doubt that Obama would want
him around as Chief of Staff, and the coverage of the campaign
suggests that Obama is a hands-on administrator.)
If all this is correct, then Obama's agreeing on a written list of
Senate candidates acceptable to him and asking his chief of staff to
convey that list orally or in writing to Blagojevich does not
constitute "contact" in Obama's mind. If these news reports are true,
was it really candid to say, "I had no contact with the governor or
his office"?
Obama's delay today is fully proper. But we will have to wait to see
his report to tell whether Obama is going to release the contacts
relevant to the attempted shakedown.
References
1. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16585.html
2. http://volokh.com/posts/1229144175.shtml
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