Blago Retrial: Daily Journal 5/12

Follow Ward Room on Twitter to keep up-to-date with action in the courtroom.

2:56 p.m.: FBI investigation shows that right after the 2004 election, Blagojevich had $10 million in campaign funds. At his time of arrest, he only had $3 million.

12:14 p.m.: Former Deputy Gov. Robert Greenlee says, "Blagojevich believed the main advantage to appointing Jesse Jackson Jr. to the Senate seat was campaign contributions."

11:50: a.m.: The government objected to the defense's cross-examination so many times that Judge James Zagel sent the jury out of the courtroom and asked lawyer Aaron Goldstein to preview the questions on his list. Before court resumed, Zagel lectured Goldstein on how to question a witness.

11 a.m.:
Defense attorneys for Rod Blagojevich have renewed their request for the official reports on the FBI's interviews with president-elect Obama following Blagojevich's 2008 arrest.

Specifically, the lawyers want to know if Obama ever reported any of the governor's alleged shakedown attempts.

"It is essential for the defense to know whether President Obama, subsequent to the alleged 'ask,' reported it to anyone, and that he believed this 'ask' to be illegal or improper," wrote attorney Lauren Kaesberg, in a motion filed this morning, in federal court.

Noting that the president-elect was the incoming head of the Justice department, "President Obama presumably had a duty to report it, if he believed it to be criminal."

What to Expect Today

John Wyma, Rod Blagojevich's former chief of staff, is expected to take the stand Thursday. This could signal another bad day for Blagojevich, after tapes played Wednesday laid out one of the former governor's scandals.

In the fall of 2008, Wyma agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and provided key pieces in what proved to be a fast-moving final act against the sitting governor, leading to his December arrest, and eventual impeachment.. [Read a recap of Wednesday's court here ... and a preview for Thursday court here ... ]