Illinois' ex-governor sentenced to 14 years in corruption case

Dec 7, 2011, 20:23 GMT

Washington - A federal judge sentenced ousted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for crimes including conspiring to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

'When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and not easily repaired,' US District Judge James Zagel said before handing down his sentence, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reported online.

Blagojevich, 54, will have to serve a minimum of nearly 12 years under federal sentencing rules. He was ordered to report to prison in February.

The former governor was convicted most notably of attempting to profit from his power to appoint a successor to fill the seat of Obama, who still had two years left in his Senate term when he won the presidency in November 2008.

Just a month after the presidential election, Blagojevich was arrested in a raid on his Chicago home after having been recorded discussing with aides his plans to sell the Senate appointment in an FBI wiretap, which was part of an investigation of earlier corruption allegations.

Blagojevich denied wrongdoing, but was impeached and removed from office by the Illinois State Legislature in January 2009.

His first trial ended in August 2010 with a conviction on one count of making a false statement to the FBI but a hung jury on 23 additional counts.

A retrial produced convictions in June on 17 additional counts, including the charges over the Senate seat and other allegations of influence-peddling.

Two of Blagojevich's four predecessors as governor of the Midwestern state of Illinois have also been sent to prison, though he is the first to be convicted of crimes committed while in the state's highest office.