Blagojevich Re-Indicted to Protect Against Losing Honest Services Counts
As previously predicted here, we believe that the Supreme Court will declare the honest services statute unconstitutional. Apparently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois thinks likewise.
In an apparent effort to head off any problems caused by the loss of the honest services mail fraud counts, the government has returned a Second Superseding Indictment against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. In a filing yesterday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois explained that because the defendants’ conduct violated multiple criminal statutes, additional violations of the law are charged in the Second Superseding Indictment. The filing is in direct response to Blagojevich’s Motion to Dismiss the honest services mail and wire fraud counts, and is fashioned in such a way that, should the Supreme Court find that the honest services mail and wire fraud statutes are unconstitutional, those charges can easily be dismissed, so as not to effect the trial of the case. The Blagojevich trial is scheduled for June 3.
All criminal practitioners should be filing similar motions to dismiss the honest services counts in any pending indictments.
