Prior threads on Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich:
Blago arrested
Blago removed from public office
The most recent items from the trial: Blago was deeply, deeply in debt. Of course, he was concerned about this. On tape he laments (with a quantity of profanity not seen since the Nixon Tapes of the Watergate era) about being unable to afford college for his kid.
Well, maybe he could sell some of those fancy suits and ties. Or better yet, learn what the word "budget" means (hmm... that could explain some of Illinois fiscal problems) or what it is to live within one's means.
How the FUCK does one spend $400,000 on clothing? Even over 6 years? That's what, about $67,000 a year on CLOTHES? WTF?In November 2008, Rod Blagojevich was plotting for a new job with his advisers, loudly complaining he was desperate for cash.
"Amy is going to college in six years, and we can't afford it," Blagojevich screamed on the Nov. 10 call. "I feel like I'm f------ my children."
The Blagojevich household spent more on fine clothing than on their mortgage, childcare, travel or private schools in the years that Blagojevich served as governor, according to trial testimony.
Here are the top 10 categories of spending by Rod and Patti Blagojevich from January 2002 through Dec. 9, 2008.
1. Clothing: $400,000-plus
2. Home mortgage: $392,463
I understand some professions require a certain level of expensive attire, but I don't think even Liberace ever exceed his house payment with his clothing allowance.
See, that's part of what pisses people off. Who gives a damn if you can afford $400,000 in clothing? You're allowed to spend your money on what you want, right? But whining you have no money and are horribly in debt, then dropping that kind of money on clothing just makes people want to vomit. Especially when the state is running record high unemployment and people are shopping at Goodwill and Salvation Army for their kid's school clothes and winter coats - I know families that don't have even $400 a year to spend on clothes for a family, this yahoo can't get buy on a thousand times that?3. Expenses on rental properties, including condos in Chicago and Washington, D.C.: $200,000-plus
4. House expenses: $100,000-plus
5. Groceries and convenience stores: About $95,000
6. Private school tuition: $93,878
7. Retail stores: About $95,000
8. Child care: About $50,000
9. Travel: About $50,000
10. Medical: Less than $50,000
Some one-day purchases:
$179 on basket weave ties at Saks Fifth Avenue on Jan. 16, 2006
$7,781 at Tom James Company Custom Clothier on Jan. 25, 2006
$18,0226 at Tom James Company Custom Clothier on April 12, 2006
$664 on ties at Saks Fifth Avenue on May 25, 2006
$2,973 on Geneva Custom Shirts on May 26, 2006
$13,758 at Tom James Company Custom Clothier on Jan. 31, 2008
$1,259 at Allen Edmonds Shoes, on Feb. 22, 2008
Source: Charts and credit card statements released by U.S. attorney's office
Four days later, he dropped $429 on two ties at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Two days after that, he hit Saks again, spending another $429 on a pair of neckties.
A few weeks later, it was time for a custom suit. That price tag: $4,000.
According to credit card records presented Thursday in Blagojevich's federal corruption trial, the spree was just a drop in the bucket of the more than $400,000 the Northwest Side Democrat spent on fine clothing, ties, footwear and even underwear in his tenure as governor.
The Blagojevich household spent more on fine clothing than on their mortgage, child care, travel or private schools in the years that Blagojevich served as governor, according to trial testimony.
Many of the expenditures came as the family was swimming in debt.
But let's be honest here - while blowing those bucks on clothes is... distasteful to the downtrodden citizens of Illinois it's not exactly illegal (defaulting on debt may be, but hey, governor's can file for personal bankruptcy just like anyone else).Blagojevich's finances were displayed on the same day jurors heard the former governor calling President Obama a "mother f-----" on a recorded telephone call, as well as testimony that Blagojevich's wife, Patti, got paid tens of thousands of dollars by convicted businessman Tony Rezko -- allegedly to do nothing.
Jurors in the ex-governor's trial were shown credit card bill after credit card bill in which Blagojevich dropped hundreds of dollars at a time on ties at Saks Fifth Avenue and thousands of dollars on high-end, custom Oxxford suits, not to mention pricey Allen Edmonds footwear.
In a matter of days in 2006, Blagojevich spent $5,000 on an Oxxford suit, $1,400 on Geneva Custom Shirts, $63 on Hanro underwear and $214 on ties.
IRS agent Shari Schindler said she totaled up all the various expenditures from 2002 to 2008 and that of the top 15 businesses or people receiving money, four were clothing-related. That included more than $205,000 in spending at Tom James Clothing/Oxxford -- a custom clothing, custom suit maker.
It was the second-biggest individual recipient of money on the list, only below the family's mortgage company.
Saks Fifth Avenue, Geneva Custom Shirts and Neiman Marcus were also among the top 15.
Many purchases of similar items were just days apart, according to the credit card bills. Lists show thousands of dollars of spending on running shoes and ties.
Perhaps anticipating that his complete spending habits would be on full display, Blagojevich often has repeated the ties he has worn during his trial.
On his way out of court Thursday, Rod Blagojevich's brother, Robert, who is also on trial, stopped and smiled.
"For the record, I buy my ties on sale," Robert Blagojevich said.
However...
OK, that could come under "fraud"...When it came to the Rod Blagojevich family income, two men testified Thursday that Patti Blagojevich made money from Rezko's Rezmar company for doing nothing.
Testifying under a grant of immunity, Robert Williams, former chief financial officer of Rezmar, said Patti Blagojevich was paid $12,000 a month for what was recorded in Rezmar books as consulting.
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked if Williams was aware of any consulting work Patti Blagojevich did.
"I was not," he said.
Hamilton used Williams to lead jurors along a money trail that allegedly included $40,000 in a sham brokerage fee coming through Rezko and ultimately paying to renovate the Blagojeviches' Ravenswood Manor home.
That's because you're a loser, Milorad. Maybe you can be roommates with another former governor, George Ryan as a guest of the Federal prison system (Mr. Ryan should be resident through 2013 if I read the sentencing terms correctly). I hear Terre Haute is lovely this time of year, with the heat, humidity, and the fresh crop of mosquitoes our wet spring has generated.Also Thursday, jurors heard Blagojevich in an expletive-laden conference call reacting to his advisers saying he shouldn't expect anything from Obama in exchange for appointing his favored candidate to Obama's old Senate seat.
"You guys are telling me. ... Give this mother f------ his senator. F--- him! For nothing? F--- him!" an angry Blagojevich snarled.
The former governor's advisers tell him if he appoints himself senator, he will be "a national joke."
"We're stuck. ... This world is passing me by, and I'm stuck in this job as governor," Blagojevich said. "I'm stuck."