A lawyer for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) dismissed impeachment inquiries against him, adding that they aren’t helping the state and that they amount to a witch hunt.
“Well, the case is a fairy tale, the process is a witch hunt,” said defense lawyer Ed Genson on MSNBC Thursday. “The fact of the matter is, I don’t know that Illinois is doing itself any credit in the light of the — in the light of the scandal and in light of the problems — the image of the state of Illinois is having.
“It seems to me that to put together a process which deprives the governor of any sort of rights whatsoever does not do Illinois proud.”
A special Illinois House impeachment panel began considering Blagojevich’s impeachment this week. Genson told lawmakers Wednesday that he thought some of them had already decided to remove the governor and that they lacked standards to determine impeachment.
“That’s not what you call due process,” Genson said on MSNBC. “That’s not what you call a neutral forum.”
Genson has called on prosecutors and lawmakers to allow him to see the tapes used in the case against Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell a U.S. Senate appointment and withholding state money from groups that refused to contribute to his political fund.
“The tapes have been withheld,” he said. “We haven’t seen them. We see snippets that were chosen by law enforcement officials. We saw a dog and pony show looking at those snippets — which we believe was inappropriate.”
Genson said that prosecutors’ case won’t hold up.
“In order to violate the law, you have to do something besides talk,” he said. “And that’s all that we heard on those tapes, are snippets from a thousands of hours worth of tape where people talked. But the bottom line is, nobody did anything, nobody took any money, nobody asked for any money, nobody got any advantage.”