In an unexpected move, the highly entertaining and often unpredictable former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked a federal judge to cancel his retrial and sentence him on the sole conviction in his first trial: lying to an FBI agent.
Blagojevich insisted that he is still innocent but said he was making the request in the interest of justice and saving taxpayers money, according to a motion filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago. He was convicted in the first trial on one of 24 counts, and the government is slated to retry him April 20.
He has been given court-appointed attorneys paid by the government. However, the attorneys have yet to be paid.
“The federal budget is being drastically cut,” Blagojevich attorney Lauren Kaeseberg wrote in the five-page motion. “Specifically, the funds for lawyers to defend indigent defendants have been suspended.
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