August 26th, 2010
12:30 PM ET

Prosecutors dismiss charges against Blagojevich's brother

Prosecutors have dismissed all charges against Robert Blagojevich, brother of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, defense attorney Michael Ettinger told reporters Thursday.

Robert Blagojevich was previously charged with two counts of extortion conspiracy and one count each of wire fraud and extortion.

"I was in shock, and still am," Ettinger said. He said when he told his client, Robert Blagojevich said, "'Oh my God, oh my God.' And I told him 'You're done. You're free.' His wife is hysterical."

Ettinger said prosecutors told a judge at a hearing Thursday they were dropping the charges because of "the disparity in the roles between Robert and Rod" and "in the interests of justice."
Filed under: Justice • Rod Blagojevich
soundoff (44 Responses)
  1. Well then

    ..they said they were not guilty, and all charges would be dropped. They sure showed us!

    August 26, 2010 at 2:00 pm | Report abuse |
  2. ACSummers

    Robert got VERY lucky. When the prosecutors couldn't convict his former Gov Bro on ALL 24 charges (except 1 - lying to the fed) guess that spending $30 million more on Robert WAS/IS STUPID. It didn't and doesn't make since to spend even MORE our $$$ on retrying Rob. Sentence him on the one charge and be done with it.

    August 26, 2010 at 2:05 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Mike J

    Every so often the U.S. Attorney makes a wise decision. Actually they always do the right thing.

    August 26, 2010 at 2:22 pm | Report abuse |
    • Master_Kush

      US Attorney's are tools, and do what they are told. They are anti-american by their very existence.

      August 26, 2010 at 2:38 pm | Report abuse |
  4. nellpost

    This could happen to any of us.

    August 26, 2010 at 3:04 pm | Report abuse |
1 2
« Back to main