By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Andrew Traver, the man the White House nominated last November to head up ATF, is in Washington Tuesday to speak to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. His arrival comes in the midst of a major controversy — or screw up as some might say — involving ATF’s “Operation Fast and Furious”,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The Obama White House had no intention of keeping Ken Melson, acting head of ATF. In fact, last November it nominated Andrew Traver, head of the Chicago ATF office, to become the permanent head of the agency. But the confirmation process seemed to hit a big bump as the pro-gun lobbying…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Soon we’ll get the verdict in the Blago II trial and we’ll start to evaluate what it means for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. The jury begins the fifth day of deliberations on Thursday. The first trial did not bode so well for Fitzgerald, the rock star among U.S. Attorneys. The…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com It’s the moment of truth. Jury deliberations in Blago II — the retrial of ex-Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich — begins Friday. Don’t expect a quick verdict. The jury will have to plow through 20 counts, which should take some time.
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A former university research technologist was convicted Monday in Chicago of conspiring to kill a federal prosecutor and DEA agent, the Chicago Tribune reported. The paper reported that it all began two years ago when Frank Caira told a friend that he wanted to make the prosecutor Shoshana Gillers and DEA…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com If you figured the testimony of ex-Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich at his retrial on corruption charges in downtown Chicago would be filled with shenanigans and piss off the judge, well…. you guessed right. First off, the U.S. District Judge James Zagel on Wednesday got angry after Blago tried “smuggling” in evidence…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Theodore Kaczynski, aka the “Unabomber”, is a apparently a suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area, according to media reports. Bloomberg reported that the FBI wants Kaczynski’s DNA to see if there’s any link to the Tylenol killings. Bloomberg reported that Kaczynski made the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Well, that was quick. After just 2 1/2 weeks of testimony, the prosecution in the federal retrial of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to rest its case on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The first trial took 11 weeks, most of which was taken up by the prosecution presenting it case…
