BREAKING: Rod Blagojevich indicted on 16 felony counts

By GottaLaff

Per MSNBC, he's charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion. More soon.

UPDATE, via BREAKING NEWS on Twitter:

FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR'S BROTHER, 2 FORMER AIDS AND TWO BUSINESSMEN ALSO INDICTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION INVOLVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN STATE PENSION BONDS.

UPDATE:
Per David Shuster just now on MSNBC, part of the charge was a deal he was trying to make with Karl Rove to influence Fitzgerald to drop the charges.

While prosecutors went about their work, the impeached and ousted governor was apparently vacationing at a Disney World resort in Florida.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald had until Tuesday to produce an indictment replacing a criminal complaint filed against the former governor Dec. 9 after FBI agents arrested him at his Chicago home.[...]

Blagojevich, 52, was charged in the complaint with scheming to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat and a host of other corruption. He denies wrongdoing. [...]

Fitzgerald has said he filed the criminal complaint instead of an indictment in December because he wanted to arrest Blagojevich immediately to stop what he called a "political corruption crime spree" by the governor. It would have taken much more time to present the evidence to a grand jury and get it to vote for an indictment. [...]

Besides the Senate seat allegations, an affidavit accompanying the complaint accuses Blagojevich of trying to squeeze companies for campaign money and pressure the Chicago Tribune to fire editorial writers calling for his impeachment.

UPDATE: 19 counts now?

UPDATE:

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced.

Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades. [...]

The criminal complaint charged Blagojevich with attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama and seeking the firing of Tribune editorial writers in return for state help on the sale of Wrigley Field. The ballpark and newspaper are owned by Tribune Co.

Blagojevich's brother, Rob, took over as head of the governor's campaign fund last August, just two months before federal authorities won court authorization to wiretap the then-governor's home phone and campaign office.

Monk was also caught on the recordings.

This marks the third time Kelly has been charged by federal authorities but the first time for alleged wrongdoing with the former governor. In January the wealthy roofing contractor pleaded guilty to tax fraud for concealing his use of corporate funds to cover gambling debts, but just weeks later, he was charged in connection with a kickback scheme at O'Hare International Airport.

Authorities have alleged that Harris tried to carry out the governor's plan to have Tribune editorial writers fired for critical editorials of Blagojevich.