The Governor of Illinois was arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated US Senate seat to the highest bidder.

The arrest of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, his chief of staff, cast a light on the home state of the President-elect, which has a history of endemic corruption.

The charges include allegations that the Democratic governor, who has served two-terms, conspired with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former friend and political donor of Mr Obama, in schemes requiring individuals and companies to pay kickbacks in return for state contracts.

Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor in Chicago, said that the charges did not allege any wrongdoing by the future president. “I should make clear the complaint makes no allegations about the President-elect whatsoever,” he said.

Mr Obama said that he was “saddened and sobered” by the allegation, but insisted he had never discussed his Senate seat with the governor.

“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening. But as I said it is a sad day for Illinois,” Mr Obama said.

However, David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s senior advisor, told Fox News on November 23 that the President-elect had spoken to Mr Blagojevic about the choice of his successor in the Senate. “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them,” Mr Axelrod said at the time.

Mr Blagojevich, a Serb-American former shoeshine boy who married the daughter of an influential Chicago alderman, was handcuffed and taken into custody at his home at dawn after asking an FBI agent: “Is this a joke?” After a court appearance he was freed last night on a $4,500 (£3,000) bail.

Prosecutors said that the FBI had taken exceptional measures, including tapping the home telephone of the governor since October, because of a sudden surge in alleged corruption.

They said that Mr Blagojevich was trying to raise $2.5 million (£1.7 million) in campaign contributions by the end of the year before an ethics law came into force to restrict donations from people who do business with the state. “We are in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

The FBI has issued a 76-page affidavit outlining the alleged attempt by Mr Blagojevich to extract a price for exercising his power to appoint a Senator to fill Mr Obama’s vacated seat.

In a secretly recorded conversation he allegedly said that the Senate seat “is a f***ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing”.

In one taped conversation Mr Blagojevich allegedly compared his position to that of a sports agent shopping around for a sports star among rival teams. His proposed approach, he allegedly said, would be to ask: “How much are you offering, [President-elect]? What are you offering, [Senate candidate 2]? . . . Can always go to . . . [Senate candidate 3].” According to prosecutors he initially discussed trading the open Senate seat for a Cabinet post or ambassadorship in the Obama administration. Mr Blagojevich allegedly sought a quid pro quo for offering the Senate seat to a close aide of Mr Obama — believed to be his friend Valerie Jarrett, who later took herself out of the running and who will be a senior adviser at the White House.

He then allegedly discussed a three-way deal where he would name Ms Jarrett to the Senate seat in return for a high-paying position with Change to Win, an organisation affiliated to the Service Employees International Union. The Obama administration would then do an unspecified favour for Change to Win.

Mr Blagojevich said that he would prefer, however, to get Mr Obama to ask key donors such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to set him up as head of his own charity, with $10-$15 million in funding, prosecutors said.

Mr Blagojevich also allegedly suggested that Mr Obama could help to get his wife on to lucrative corporate boards. Concerned that Mr Obama did not want to pay to get his favoured candidate into the Senate, Mr Blagojevich allegedly threatened to keep the Senate seat or give it to someone who could offer him cash up front.

In another secretly recorded conversation Mr Blagojevich claimed that he was offered a deal by an associate of an unnamed Senate candidate 5. “We were approached ‘pay to play’. That, you know, he’d raise 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him [Senate candidate 5] a Senator,” the governor allegedly said.

Mr Blagojevich is also charged with trying to use state funding to force the owners of the Chicago Tribune to fire key members of the newspaper's editorial board because of their calls for the governor's impeachment.

He allegedly got his chief of staff to tell the Tribune's owner that he would not get state help in the sale of Wrigley Field, home of the company's Chicago Cubs, unless they "get us some editorial support".

Court papers say Mr Harris was told by a Tribune financial adviser that cuts were coming at the newspaper and "reading between the lines he's going after that section".

"Wow," Mr Blagojevich allegedly replied. "Keep our fingers crossed. You're the man. Good job, John."

The editorial writer who was allegedly targeted, however, kept his job in a recent round of cuts.

Illinois ills

— In 1960 Richard J. Daley, the Mayor of Chicago — and father of the current mayor — was accused of stuffing ballot boxes for John F. Kennedy, ultimately winning him Illinois and the presidency

— After he was elected to the US Senate in 1909, William Lorimer, a senator from Illinois, was investigated for allegedly bribing an Illinois assemblyman

— During the prohibition era, Al Capone and other gangsters operated brothels and speakeasies with impunity after paying significant bribes to the Chicago Mayor “Big Bill” Hale Thompson

— The Cook County Democratic Organisation used graft and patronage to control nearly all the elections in the city and many in the state for four decades

Sources: Times archives

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