The (bleeping) golden bargaining chip

The Blagojevich indictments have captured many of the former governor’s closest advisors and friends including his brother. Absent from the list of indictments is his wife Patricia.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blago-whatnext-bd-05-apr05,0,7070058.story

The reporters who wrote the above story are naive in their speculation about the Justice Departments motives for leaving Patti out of the list of indictments. This speculation is summed up in the following paragraph:

“Many have speculated the government has not yet charged Patricia Blagojevich in a strategic move to offer Rod Blagojevich the chance to spare her by pleading guilty and avoiding a trial. Others have said they think sparing Patricia Blagojevich could be viewed as a good public-relations move because prosecutors do not want to appear to be threatening to take both parents from the Blagojevich children.”

I my opinion the US Attorney’s office could care less about the PR related to taking away both children. I think that the real plot here is whether or not the Justice Department will allow Rod Blagojevich to plea bargain for a reduced sentence by testifying against larger criminal targets. If the Justice Department is squeezing Blagojevich to testify against Mayor Richard Daley or President Obama then they will hold out the carrot of leaving Patti out of the indictments.

On the other hand if the Justice Department is being pressured to keep any higher level politicians out of this investigation they can use Patti as a bargaining chip to keep Rod quiet about Daley or Obama. Under this scenario the US Attorney pressures Rod to plead guilty, Patti remains unindicted and there will be no further investigations.

The other possible explanation for leaving Patti out of the prosecution is her father’s political clout. Patricia Blagojevich is the daughter of Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. Mell has been a Chicago Alderman since 1975. Alderman Mell played a significant role in organizing the field operations for Rahm Emanuel's 2002 election to Congress.