Blagojevich Attorney Asks Illinois Panel to Subpoena Emanuel and Others

CHICAGO, Dec. 25 -- An attorney for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has asked the legislative panel considering impeachment of the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff.

Ed Genson wants the committee to subpoena Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), longtime Obama friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), said state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie.

Currie, the head of the committee, said she did not yet know what the committee's response to Genson's request would be. Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, she added.

Currie noted that the U.S. attorney's office has already denied the panel's request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich. U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said earlier this week that lawmakers' interviews of current or former members of Blagojevich's staff might jeopardize his criminal investigation.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, declined to comment Thursday, as did the Obama transition team. Messages seeking comment Thursday from Genson, Jackson, and attorneys for Jarrett and Emanuel were not immediately returned.

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 amid allegations that he tried to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. He has denied any wrongdoing and is ignoring scores of calls to step down, including one from Obama.

None of the possible candidates for Obama's Senate seat, said to include Jarrett and Jackson, are identified by name in the complaint, but Jackson has said he is the person dubbed "Senate Candidate 5." The congressman has said federal prosecutors told him he is not a target of their investigation.

Genson told the Chicago Sun-Times that testimony from Emanuel, Jarrett and Jackson would help prove the governor's claim that he did nothing wrong in his handling of Obama's Senate seat, the newspaper said Thursday.

On Tuesday, Obama's transition team disclosed that the president-elect, Emanuel and Jarrett had met with federal investigators about Blagojevich. It also released an internal review that found no inappropriate contact with the governor's office by Obama or his staff.

Emanuel was the only team member who discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich, and those conversations were "totally appropriate and acceptable," said the incoming White House counsel, Gregory Craig.