Annie
Diamond Member
- Nov 22, 2003
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Suddenly the MSM is interested in the background of the Office of the PE.
Obama aides won't discuss Ill. governor probe - Yahoo! News
Obama aides won't discuss Ill. governor probe - Yahoo! News
Obama aides won't discuss Ill. governor probe
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
43 mins ago
WASHINGTON President-elect Barack Obama is refusing to answer any questions about the internal review he has ordered into Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's alleged efforts to sell his former Senate seat, saying he will do so when the examination is finished.
Obama's staff has declined to respond to even basic questions, like who is conducting the probe, how long it will take, what issues are being explored and whether they are working with federal investigators. Obama has promised transparency throughout his service and to divulge contacts his staff has had with Blagojevich's office in the coming days. But his staff has locked down on inquiries in the meantime.
The Obama transition team's refusal to talk has contributed to a maelstrom around Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago congressman likely to have been in contact with the governor, who was arrested this week in a corruption scandal. But Emanuel is not a target of the probe, according to people who have been briefed on the investigation.
The two people spoke on a condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation is ongoing. One is a person close to Emanuel, who said he has been told by investigators that he's not a subject of their probe.
Asked if any conversations between Emanuel and Blagojevich were captured on government wiretaps, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "I honestly don't know." Other transition officials refused to respond to inquiries.
There are no suggestions that Obama or his aides were involved in the alleged sale of his seat. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said prosecutors were making no allegations that Obama was aware of any scheming. And Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn't be helpful to him and called him a vulgar term. Even if the governor was to appoint a candidate favored by the Obama team, Blagojevich said, "they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation."
Obama told reporters Thursday that he never personally spoke to Blagojevich about who would fill the seat he resigned to take over the presidency next month.
"What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office," Obama said. "And we'll have those in the next few days, and we'll present them. But what I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any dealmaking around my Senate seat. That I'm absolutely certain of."
Another question that Obama's staff didn't answer is how he knows that his office had no involvement if he had yet to gather all the facts about conversations they had with Blagojevich's office. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, transition officials said they do not want to release any information on the internal review until it is completed....