Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lead attorney described the case against his client as a "fairytale" and said the press is on a "witch hunt" in an interview with MSNBC Thursday.
Ed Genson, who has lambasted the House Impeachment hearings for being prejudicial toward the governor and on Thursday claimed the federal wiretaps of Blagojevich were illegal and therefore inadmissible, said the government's case is "weak" and the governor, who told him he is not guilty, will fight it:
GENSON: The tapes are, the tapes, uh, uh, have, have been withheld, we haven't
seen them. We see snippets that are chosen by law enforcement officials. We saw
a dog and pony show looking at those snippets, which we believe was
inappropriate, but in any event, the fact of the matter is, given what they did,
and we assume what they took out of those tapes, were their best shots, nobody
did anything. And that's really the sum and substance of it. In order to violate
the law you have to do something besides talk. And that's all that we heard on
those tapes, are snippets, 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.HALL: So you're saying the case against him, is weak.
GENSON: I'm saying that the case that has been set out against him so far is
weak. I don't know what they're doing, I don't know what else is out there, I
don't think anything else is, but I'm not going to comment on what I don't know.
What I do know is, this is much to do about nothing.
Watch the interview:
The impeachment panel adjourned Thursday and will reconvene Monday. Genson, who has been vocal about his contempt for the proceedings, dismissed the idea of walking out on the hearings (via Capitol Fax):
At one point, another one of Blagojevich's attorneys, Sam Adam Jr., could be overheard suggesting to Genson that they walk out of the impeachment hearings.
It seemed to be said quietly enough that members of the panel could not hear--but the mics on the table picked up the exchange.
Genson replied to Adam "No I'm not walking out" adding "you can walk out."
Adam then said to Genson, "No if we do it, we do it as a team," and dropped the suggestion.